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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of State of the Union Addresses of John Quincy
+Adams, by John Quincy Adams
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: State of the Union Addresses of John Quincy Adams
+
+Author: John Quincy Adams
+
+Posting Date: November 21, 2014 [EBook #5015]
+Release Date: February, 2004
+First Posted: April 11, 2002
+Last Updated: December 16, 2004
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESSES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by James Linden.  HTML version by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+State of the Union Addresses of John Quincy Adams
+
+
+
+The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
+
+Dates of addresses by John Quincy Adams in this eBook:
+
+   December 6, 1825
+   December 5, 1826
+   December 4, 1827
+   December 2, 1828
+
+
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+John Quincy Adams
+December 6, 1825
+
+Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
+
+In taking a general survey of the concerns of our beloved country, with
+reference to subjects interesting to the common welfare, the first
+sentiment which impresses itself upon the mind is of gratitude to the
+Omnipotent Disposer of All Good for the continuance of the signal
+blessings of His providence, and especially for that health which to an
+unusual extent has prevailed within our borders, and for that abundance
+which in the vicissitudes of the seasons has been scattered with
+profusion over our land. Nor ought we less to ascribe to Him the glory
+that we are permitted to enjoy the bounties of His hand in peace and
+tranquillity--in peace with all the other nations of the earth, in
+tranquillity among our selves. There has, indeed, rarely been a period
+in the history of civilized man in which the general condition of the
+Christian nations has been marked so extensively by peace and
+prosperity.
+
+Europe, with a few partial and unhappy exceptions, has enjoyed ten
+years of peace, during which all her Governments, what ever the theory
+of their constitutions may have been, are successively taught to feel
+that the end of their institution is the happiness of the people, and
+that the exercise of power among men can be justified only by the
+blessings it confers upon those over whom it is extended.
+
+During the same period our intercourse with all those nations has been
+pacific and friendly; it so continues. Since the close of your last
+session no material variation has occurred in our relations with any
+one of them. In the commercial and navigation system of Great Britain
+important changes of municipal regulation have recently been sanctioned
+by acts of Parliament, the effect of which upon the interests of other
+nations, and particularly upon ours, has not yet been fully developed.
+In the recent renewal of the diplomatic missions on both sides between
+the two Governments assurances have been given and received of the
+continuance and increase of the mutual confidence and cordiality by
+which the adjustment of many points of difference had already been
+effected, and which affords the surest pledge for the ultimate
+satisfactory adjustment of those which still remain open or may
+hereafter arise.
+
+The policy of the United States in their commercial intercourse with
+other nations has always been of the most liberal character. In the
+mutual exchange of their respective productions they have abstained
+altogether from prohibitions; they have interdicted themselves the
+power of laying taxes upon exports, and when ever they have favored
+their own shipping by special preferences or exclusive privileges in
+their own ports it has been only with a view to countervail similar
+favors and exclusions granted by the nations with whom we have been
+engaged in traffic to their own people or shipping, and to the
+disadvantage of ours. Immediately after the close of the last war a
+proposal was fairly made by the act of Congress of March 3rd, 1815, to
+all the maritime nations to lay aside the system of retaliating
+restrictions and exclusions, and to place the shipping of both parties
+to the common trade on a footing of equality in respect to the duties
+of tonnage and impost. This offer was partially and successively
+accepted by Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Hanseatic
+cities, Prussia, Sardinia, the Duke of Oldenburg, and Russia. It was
+also adopted, under certain modifications, in our late commercial
+convention with France, and by the act of Congress of January 1st,
+1824, it has received a new confirmation with all the nations who had
+acceded to it, and has been offered again to all those who are or may
+here after be willing to abide in reciprocity by it. But all these
+regulations, whether established by treaty or by municipal enactments,
+are still subject to one important restriction.
+
+The removal of discriminating duties of tonnage and of impost is
+limited to articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the
+country to which the vessel belongs or to such articles as are most
+usually first shipped from her ports. It will deserve the serious
+consideration of Congress whether even this remnant of restriction may
+not be safely abandoned, and whether the general tender of equal
+competition made in the act of January 8th, 1824, maynot be extended to
+include all articles of merchandise not prohibited, of what country so
+ever they may be the produce or manufacture. Propositions of this
+effect have already been made to us by more than one European
+Government, and it is probable that if once established by legislation
+or compact with any distinguished maritime state it would recommend
+itself by the experience of its advantages to the general accession of
+all.
+
+The convention of commerce and navigation between the United States and
+France, concluded on June 24th, 1822, was, in the understanding and
+intent of both parties, as appears upon its face, only a temporary
+arrangement of the points of difference between them of the most
+immediate and pressing urgency. It was limited in the first instance to
+two years from January 10th, 1822, but with a proviso that it should
+further continue in force 'til the conclusion of a general and
+definitive treaty of commerce, unless terminated by a notice, six
+months in advance, of either of the parties to the other. Its operation
+so far as it extended has been mutually advantageous, and it still
+continues in force by common consent. But it left unadjusted several
+objects of great interest to the citizens and subjects of both
+countries, and particularly a mass of claims to considerable amount of
+citizens of the United States upon the Government of France of
+indemnity for property taken or destroyed under circumstances of the
+most aggravated and outrageous character. In the long period during
+which continual and earnest appeals have been made to the equity and
+magnanimity of France in behalf of these claims their justice has not
+been, as it could not be, denied.
+
+It was hoped that the accession of a new Sovereign to the throne would
+have afforded a favorable opportunity for presenting them to the
+consideration of his Government. They have been presented and urged
+hither to without effect. The repeated and earnest representations of
+our minister at the Court of France remain as yet even without an
+answer. Were the demands of nations upon the justice of each other
+susceptible of adjudication by the sentence of an impartial tribunal,
+those to which I now refer would long since have been settled and
+adequate indemnity would have been obtained.
+
+There are large amounts of similar claims upon the Netherlands, Naples,
+and Denmark. For those upon Spain prior to 1819 indemnity was, after
+many years of patient forbearance, obtained; and those upon Sweden have
+been lately compromised by a private settlement, in which the claimants
+themselves have acquiesced. The Governments of Denmark and of Naples
+have been recently reminded of those yet existing against them, nor
+will any of them be forgotten while a hope may be indulged of obtaining
+justice by the means within the constitutional power of the Executive,
+and without resorting to those means of self-redress which, as well as
+the time, circumstances, and occasion which may require them, are
+within the exclusive competency of the Legislature.
+
+It is with great satisfaction that I am enabled to bear witness to the
+liberal spirit with which the Republic of Colombia has made
+satisfaction for well-established claims of a similar character, and
+among the documents now communicated to Congress will be distinguished
+a treaty of commerce and navigation with that Republic, the
+ratifications of which have been exchanged since the last recess of the
+Legislature. The negotiation of similar treaties with all of the
+independent South American States has been contemplated and may yet be
+accomplished. The basis of them all, as proposed by the United States,
+has been laid in two principles--the one of entire and unqualified
+reciprocity, the other the mutual obligation of the parties to place
+each other permanently upon the footing of the most favored nation.
+These principles are, indeed, indispensable to the effectual
+emancipation of the American hemisphere from the thralldom of
+colonizing monopolies and exclusions, an event rapidly realizing in the
+progress of human affairs, and which the resistance still opposed in
+certain parts of Europe to the acknowledgment of the Southern American
+Republics as independent States will, it is believed, contribute more
+effectually to accomplish. The time has been, and that not remote, when
+some of those States might, in their anxious desire to obtain a nominal
+recognition, have accepted of a nominal independence, clogged with
+burdensome conditions, and exclusive commercial privileges granted to
+the nation from which they have separated to the disadvantage of all
+others. They are all now aware that such concessions to any European
+nation would be incompatible with that independence which they have
+declared and maintained.
+
+Among the measures which have been suggested to them by the new
+relations with one another, resulting from the recent changes in their
+condition, is that of assembling at the Isthmus of Panama a congress,
+at which each of them should be represented, to deliberate upon objects
+important to the welfare of all. The Republics of Colombia, of Mexico,
+and of Central America have already deputed plenipotentiaries to such a
+meeting, and they have invited the United States to be also represented
+there by their ministers. The invitation has been accepted, and
+ministers on the part of the United States will be commissioned to
+attend at those deliberations, and to take part in them so far as may
+be compatible with that neutrality from which it is neither our
+intention nor the desire of the other American States that we should
+depart.
+
+The commissioners under the 7th article of the treaty of Ghent have so
+nearly completed their arduous labors that, by the report recently
+received from the agent on the part of the United States, there is
+reason to expect that the commission will be closed at their next
+session, appointed for May 22 of the ensuing year.
+
+The other commission, appointed to ascertain the indemnities due for
+slaves carried away from the United States after the close of the late
+war, have met with some difficulty, which has delayed their progress in
+the inquiry. A reference has been made to the British Government on the
+subject, which, it may be hoped, will tend to hasten the decision of
+the commissioners, or serve as a substitute for it.
+
+Among the powers specifically granted to Congress by the Constitution
+are those of establishing uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies
+throughout the United States and of providing for organizing, arming,
+and disciplining the militia and for governing such part of them as may
+be employed in the services of the United States. The magnitude and
+complexity of the interests affected by legislation upon these subjects
+may account for the fact that, long and often as both of them have
+occupied the attention and animated the debates of Congress, no systems
+have yet been devised for fulfilling to the satisfaction of the
+community the duties prescribed by these grants of power.
+
+To conciliate the claim of the individual citizen to the enjoyment of
+personal liberty, with the effective obligation of private contracts,
+is the difficult problem to be solved by a law of bankruptcy. These are
+objects of the deepest interest to society, affecting all that is
+precious in the existence of multitudes of persons, many of them in the
+classes essentially dependent and helpless, of the age requiring
+nurture, and of the sex entitled to protection from the free agency of
+the parent and the husband. The organization of the militia is yet more
+indispensable to the liberties of the country. It is only by an
+effective militia that we can at once enjoy the repose of peace and bid
+defiance to foreign aggression; it is by the militia that we are
+constituted an armed nation, standing in perpetual panoply of defense
+in the presence of all the other nations of the earth. To this end it
+would be necessary, if possible, so to shape its organization as to
+give it a more united and active energy. There are laws establishing an
+uniform militia throughout the United States and for arming and
+equipping its whole body. But it is a body of dislocated members,
+without the vigor of unity and having little of uniformity but the
+name. To infuse into this most important institution the power of which
+it is susceptible and to make it available for the defense of the Union
+at the shortest notice and at the smallest expense possible of time, of
+life, and of treasure are among the benefits to be expected from the
+persevering deliberations of Congress.
+
+Among the unequivocal indications of our national prosperity is the
+flourishing state of our finances. The revenues of the present year,
+from all their principal sources, will exceed the anticipations of the
+last. The balance in the Treasury on the first of January last was a
+little short of $2,000,000, exclusive of $2,500,000, being the moiety
+of the loan of $5,000,000 authorized by the act of May 26th, 1824. The
+receipts into the Treasury from the first of January to the 30th of
+September, exclusive of the other moiety of the same loan, are
+estimated at $16,500,000, and it is expected that those of the current
+quarter will exceed $5,000,000, forming an aggregate of receipts of
+nearly $22,000,000, independent of the loan. The expenditures of the
+year will not exceed that sum more than $2,000,000. By those
+expenditures nearly $8,000,000 of the principal of the public debt that
+have been discharged.
+
+More than $1,500,000 has been devoted to the debt of gratitude to the
+warriors of the Revolution; a nearly equal sum to the construction of
+fortifications and the acquisition of ordnance and other permanent
+preparations of national defense; $500,000 to the gradual increase of
+the Navy; an equal sum for purchases of territory from the Indians and
+payment of annuities to them; and upward of $1,000,000 for objects of
+internal improvement authorized by special acts of the last Congress.
+If we add to these $4,000,000 for payment of interest upon the public
+debt, there remains a sum of $7,000,000, which have defrayed the whole
+expense of the administration of Government in its legislative,
+executive, and judiciary departments, including the support of the
+military and naval establishments and all the occasional contingencies
+of a government coextensive with the Union.
+
+The amount of duties secured on merchandise imported since the
+commencement of the year is about $25,500,000, and that which will
+accrue during the current quarter is estimated at $5,500,000; from
+these $31,000,000, deducting the draw-backs, estimated at less than
+$7,000,000, a sum exceeding $24,000,000 will constitute the revenue of
+the year, and will exceed the whole expenditures of the year. The
+entire amount of the public debt remaining due on the first of January
+next will be short of $81,000,000.
+
+By an act of Congress of the 3d of March last a loan of $12,000,000 was
+authorized at 4.5%, or an exchange of stock to that amount of 4.5% for
+a stock of 6%, to create a fund for extinguishing an equal amount of
+the public debt, bearing an interest of 6%, redeemable in 1826. An
+account of the measures taken to give effect to this act will be laid
+before you by the Secretary of the Treasury. As the object which it had
+in view has been but partially accomplished, it will be for the
+consideration of Congress whether the power with which it clothed the
+Executive should not be renewed at an early day of the present session,
+and under what modifications.
+
+The act of Congress of the 3d of March last, directing the Secretary of
+the Treasury to subscribe, in the name and for the use of the United
+States, for 1,500 shares of the capital stock of the Chesapeake and
+Delaware Canal Company, has been executed by the actual subscription
+for the amount specified; and such other measures have been adopted by
+that officer, under the act, as the fulfillment of its intentions
+requires. The latest accounts received of this important undertaking
+authorize the belief that it is in successful progress.
+
+The payments into the Treasury from the proceeds of the sales of the
+public lands during the present year were estimated at $1,000,000. The
+actual receipts of the first two quarters have fallen very little short
+of that sum; it is not expected that the second half of the year will
+be equally productive, but the income of the year from that source may
+now be safely estimated at $1,500,000. The act of Congress of May 18th,
+1824, to provide for the extinguishment of the debt due to the United
+States by the purchasers of public lands, was limited in its operation
+of relief to the purchaser to the 10th of April last. Its effect at the
+end of the quarter during which it expired was to reduce that debt from
+$10,000,000 to $7,000,000 By the operation of similar prior laws of
+relief, from and since that of March 2d, 1821, the debt had been
+reduced from upward of $22,000,000 to $10,000,000.
+
+It is exceedingly desirable that it should be extinguished altogether;
+and to facilitate that consummation I recommend to Congress the revival
+for one year more of the act of May 18th, 1824, with such provisional
+modification as may be necessary to guard the public interests against
+fraudulent practices in the resale of the relinquished land.
+
+The purchasers of public lands are among the most useful of our fellow
+citizens, and since the system of sales for cash alone has been
+introduced great indulgence has been justly extended to those who had
+previously purchased upon credit. The debt which had been contracted
+under the credit sales had become unwieldy, and its extinction was
+alike advantageous to the purchaser and to the public. Under the system
+of sales, matured as it has been by experience, and adapted to the
+exigencies of the times, the lands will continue as they have become,
+an abundant source of revenue; and when the pledge of them to the
+public creditor shall have been redeemed by the entire discharge of the
+national debt, the swelling tide of wealth with which they replenish
+the common Treasury may be made to reflow in unfailing streams of
+improvement from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
+
+The condition of the various branches of the public service resorting
+from the Department of War, and their administration during the current
+year, will be exhibited in the report of the Secretary of War and the
+accompanying documents herewith communicated. The organization and
+discipline of the Army are effective and satisfactory. To counteract
+the prevalence of desertion among the troops it has been suggested to
+withhold from the men a small portion of their monthly pay until the
+period of their discharge; and some expedient appears to be necessary
+to preserve and maintain among the officers so much of the art of
+horsemanship as could scarcely fail to be found wanting on the possible
+sudden eruption of a war, which should take us unprovided with a single
+corps of cavalry.
+
+The Military Academy at West Point, under the restrictions of a severe
+but paternal superintendence, recommends itself more and more to the
+patronage of the nation, and the numbers of meritorious officers which
+it forms and introduces to the public service furnishes the means of
+multiplying the undertakings of the public improvements to which their
+acquirements at that institution are peculiarly adapted. The school of
+artillery practice established at Fortress Monroe Hampton, Virginia is
+well suited to the same purpose, and may need the aid of further
+legislative provision to the same end. The reports of the various
+officers at the head of the administrative branches of the military
+service, connected with the quartering, clothing, subsistence, health,
+and pay of the Army, exhibit the assiduous vigilance of those officers
+in the performance of their respective duties, and the faithful
+accountability which has pervaded every part of the system.
+
+Our relations with the numerous tribes of aboriginal natives of this
+country, scattered over its extensive surface and so dependent even for
+their existence upon our power, have been during the present year
+highly interesting. An act of Congress of May 25th, 1824, made an
+appropriation to defray the expenses of making treaties of trade and
+friendship with the Indian tribes beyond the Mississippi. An act of
+March 3d, 1825, authorized treaties to be made with the Indians for
+their consent to the making of a road from the frontier of Missouri to
+that of New Mexico, and another act of the same date provided for
+defraying the expenses of holding treaties with the Sioux, Chippeways,
+Menomenees, Sauks, Foxes, etc., for the purpose of establishing
+boundaries and promoting peace between said tribes.
+
+The first and last objects of these acts have been accomplished, and
+the second is yet in a process of execution. The treaties which since
+the last session of Congress have been concluded with the several
+tribes will be laid before the Senate for their consideration
+conformably to the Constitution. They comprise large and valuable
+acquisitions of territory, and they secure an adjustment of boundaries
+and give pledges of permanent peace between several tribes which had
+been long waging bloody wars against each other.
+
+On the 12th of February last a treaty was signed at the Indian Springs
+between commissioners appointed on the part of the United States and
+certain chiefs and individuals of the Creek Nation of Indians, which
+was received at the seat of Government only a very few days before the
+close of the last session of Congress and of the late Administration.
+The advice and consent of the Senate was given to it on the 3d of
+March, too late for it to receive the ratification of the then
+President of the United States; it was ratified on the 7th of March,
+under the unsuspecting impression that it had been negotiated in good
+faith and in the confidence inspired by the recommendation of the
+Senate. The subsequent transactions in relation to this treaty will
+form the subject of a separate communication.
+
+The appropriations made by Congress for public works, as well in the
+construction of fortifications as for purposes of internal improvement,
+so far as they have been expended, have been faithfully applied. Their
+progress has been delayed by the want of suitable officers for
+superintending them. An increase of both the corps of engineers,
+military and topographical, was recommended by my predecessor at the
+last session of Congress. The reasons upon which that recommendation
+was founded subsist in all their force and have acquired additional
+urgency since that time. The Military Academy at West Point will
+furnish from the cadets there officers well qualified for carrying this
+measure into effect.
+
+The Board of Engineers for Internal Improvement, appointed for carrying
+into execution the act of Congress of April 30th, 1824, "to procure the
+necessary surveys, plans, and estimates on the subject of roads and
+canals", have been actively engaged in that service from the close of
+the last session of Congress. They have completed the surveys necessary
+for ascertaining the practicability of a canal from the Chesapeake Bay
+to the Ohio River, and are preparing a full report on that subject,
+which, when completed, will be laid before you. The same observation is
+to be made with regard to the two other objects of national importance
+upon which the Board have been occupied, namely, the accomplishment of
+a national road from this city to New Orleans, and the practicability
+of uniting the waters of Lake Memphramagog with Connecticut River and
+the improvement of the navigation of that river. The surveys have been
+made and are nearly completed. The report may be expected at an early
+period during the present session of Congress.
+
+The acts of Congress of the last session relative to the surveying,
+marking, or laying out roads in the Territories of Florida, Arkansas,
+and Michigan, from Missouri to Mexico, and for the continuation of the
+Cumberland road, are, some of them, fully executed, and others in the
+process of execution. Those for completing or commencing fortifications
+have been delayed only so far as the Corps of Engineers has been
+inadequate to furnish officers for the necessary superintendence of the
+works. Under the act confirming the statutes of Virginia and Maryland
+incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, three
+commissioners on the part of the United States have been appointed for
+opening books and receiving subscriptions, in concert with a like
+number of commissioners appointed on the part of each of those States.
+A meeting of the commissioners has been postponed, to await the
+definitive report of the board of engineers.
+
+The light-houses and monuments for the safety of our commerce and
+mariners, the works for the security of Plymouth Beach and for the
+preservation of the islands in Boston Harbor, have received the
+attention required by the laws relating to those objects respectively.
+The continuation of the Cumberland road, the most important of them
+all, after surmounting no inconsiderable difficulty in fixing upon the
+direction of the road, has commenced under the most promising of
+auspices, with the improvements of recent invention in the mode of
+construction, and with advantage of a great reduction in the
+comparative cost of the work.
+
+The operation of the laws relating to the Revolutionary pensioners may
+deserve the renewed consideration of Congress. The act of March 18th,
+1818, while it made provision for many meritorious and indigent
+citizens who had served in the War of Independence, opened a door to
+numerous abuses and impositions. To remedy this the act of May 1st, 1820,
+exacted proofs of absolute indigence, which many really in want were
+unable and all susceptible of that delicacy which is allied to many
+virtues must be deeply reluctant to give. The result has been that some
+among the least deserving have been retained, and some in whom the
+requisites both of worth and want were combined have been stricken from
+the list. As the numbers of these venerable relics of an age gone by
+diminish; as the decays of body, mind, and estate of those that survive
+must in the common course of nature increase, should not a more liberal
+portion of indulgence be dealt out to them? May not the want in most
+instances be inferred from the demand when the service can be proved,
+and may not the last days of human infirmity be spared the
+mortification of purchasing a pittance of relief only by the exposure
+of its own necessities? I submit to Congress the expediency of
+providing for individual cases of this description by special
+enactment, or of revising the act of May 1st, 1820, with a view to
+mitigate the rigor of its exclusions in favor of persons to whom
+charity now bestowed can scarcely discharge the debt of justice.
+
+The portion of the naval force of the Union in actual service has been
+chiefly employed on three stations--the Mediterranean, the coasts of
+South America bordering on the Pacific Ocean, and the West Indies. An
+occasional cruiser has been sent to range along the African shores most
+polluted by the traffic of slaves; one armed vessel has been stationed
+on the coast of our eastern boundary, to cruise along the fishing
+grounds in Hudsons Bay and on the coast of Labrador, and the first
+service of a new frigate has been performed in restoring to his native
+soil and domestic enjoyments the veteran hero whose youthful blood and
+treasure had freely flowed in the cause of our country's independence,
+and whose whole life has been a series of services and sacrifices to
+the improvement of his fellow men.
+
+The visit of General Lafayette, alike honorable to himself and to our
+country, closed, as it had commenced, with the most affecting
+testimonials of devoted attachment on his part, and of unbounded
+gratitude of this people to him in return. It will form here-after a
+pleasing incident in the annals of our Union, giving to real history
+the intense interest of romance and signally marking the unpurchasable
+tribute of a great nation's social affections to the disinterested
+champion of the liberties of human-kind.
+
+The constant maintenance of a small squadron in the Mediterranean is a
+necessary substitute for the humiliating alternative of paying tribute
+for the security of our commerce in that sea, and for a precarious
+peace, at the mercy of every caprice of four Barbary States, by whom it
+was liable to be violated. An additional motive for keeping a
+respectable force stationed there at this time is found in the maritime
+war raging between the Greeks and the Turks, and in which the neutral
+navigation of this Union is always in danger of outrage and
+depredation. A few instances have occurred of such depredations upon
+our merchant vessels by privateers or pirates wearing the Grecian flag,
+but without real authority from the Greek or any other Government. The
+heroic struggles of the Greeks themselves, in which our warmest
+sympathies as free men and Christians have been engaged, have continued
+to be maintained with vicissitudes of success adverse and favorable.
+
+Similar motives have rendered expedient the keeping of a like force on
+the coasts of Peru and Chile on the Pacific. The irregular and
+convulsive character of the war upon the shores has been extended to
+the conflicts upon the ocean. An active warfare has been kept up for
+years with alternate success, though generally to the advantage of the
+American patriots. But their naval forces have not always been under
+the control of their own Governments. Blockades, unjustifiable upon any
+acknowledged principles of international law, have been proclaimed by
+officers in command, and though disavowed by the supreme authorities,
+the protection of our own commerce against them has been made cause of
+complaint and erroneous imputations against some of the most gallant
+officers of our Navy. Complaints equally groundless have been made by
+the commanders of the Spanish royal forces in those seas; but the most
+effective protection to our commerce has been the flag and the firmness
+of our own commanding officers.
+
+The cessation of the war by the complete triumph of the patriot cause
+has removed, it is hoped, all cause of dissension with one party and
+all vestige of force of the other. But an unsettled coast of many
+degrees of latitude forming a part of our own territory and a
+flourishing commerce and fishery extending to the islands of the
+Pacific and to China still require that the protecting power of the
+Union should be displayed under its flag as well upon the ocean as upon
+the land.
+
+The objects of the West India Squadron have been to carry into
+execution the laws for the suppression of the African slave trade; for
+the protection of our commerce against vessels of piratical character,
+though bearing commissions from either of the belligerent parties; for
+its protection against open and unequivocal pirates. These objects
+during the present year have been accomplished more effectually than at
+any former period. The African slave trade has long been excluded from
+the use of our flag, and if some few citizens of our country have
+continued to set the laws of the Union as well as those of nature and
+humanity at defiance by persevering in that abominable traffic, it has
+been only by sheltering themselves under the banners of other nations
+less earnest for the total extinction of the trade of ours.
+
+The active, persevering, and unremitted energy of Captain Warrington
+and of the officers and men under his command on that trying and
+perilous service have been crowned with signal success, and are
+entitled to the approbation of their country. But experience has shown
+that not even a temporary suspension or relaxation from assiduity can
+be indulged on that station without reproducing piracy and murder in
+all their horrors; nor is it probably that for years to come our
+immensely valuable commerce in those seas can navigate in security
+without the steady continuance of an armed force devoted to its
+protection.
+
+It were, indeed, a vain and dangerous illusion to believe that in the
+present or probable condition of human society a commerce so extensive
+and so rich as ours could exist and be pursued in safety without the
+continual support of a military marine--the only arm by which the power
+of this Confederacy can be estimated or felt by foreign nations, and
+the only standing military force which can never be dangerous to our
+own liberties at home. A permanent naval peace establishment,
+therefore, adapted to our present condition, and adaptable to that
+gigantic growth with which the nation is advancing in its career, is
+among the subjects which have already occupied the foresight of the
+last Congress, and which will deserve your serious deliberations. Our
+Navy, commenced at an early period of our present political
+organization upon a scale commensurate with the incipient energies, the
+scanty resources, and the comparative indigence of our infancy, was
+even then found adequate to cope with all the powers of Barbary, save
+the first, and with one of the principle maritime powers of Europe.
+
+At a period of further advancement, but with little accession of
+strength, it not only sustained with honor the most unequal of
+conflicts, but covered itself and our country with unfading glory. But
+it is only since the close of the late war that by the numbers and
+force of the ships of which it was composed it could deserve the name
+of a navy. Yet it retains nearly the same organization as when it
+consisted only of five frigates. The rules and regulations by which it
+is governed earnestly call for revision, and the want of a naval school
+of instruction, corresponding with the Military Academy at West Point,
+for the formation of scientific and accomplished officers, is felt with
+daily increasing aggravation.
+
+The act of Congress of May 26th, 1824, authorizing an examination and
+survey of the harbor of Charleston, in South Carolina, of St. Marys, in
+Georgia, and of the coast of Florida, and for other purposes, has been
+executed so far as the appropriation would admit. Those of the 3d of
+March last, authorizing the establishment of a navy yard and depot on
+the coast of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, and authorizing the
+building of ten sloops of war, and for other purposes, are in the
+course of execution, for the particulars of which and other objects
+connected with this Department I refer to the report of the Secretary
+of the Navy, herewith communicated.
+
+A report from the Post Master General is also submitted, exhibiting the
+present flourishing condition of that Department. For the first time
+for many years the receipts for the year ending on the first of July
+last exceeded the expenditures during the same period to the amount of
+more than $45,000. Other facts equally creditable to the administration
+of this Department are that in two years from July 1st, 1823, an
+improvement of more than $185,000 in its pecuniary affairs has been
+realized; that in the same interval the increase of the transportation
+of the mail has exceeded 1,500,000 miles annually, and that 1,040 new
+post offices have been established. It hence appears that under
+judicious management the income from this establishment may be relied
+on as fully adequate to defray its expenses, and that by the
+discontinuance of post roads altogether unproductive, others of more
+useful character may be opened, 'til the circulation of the mail shall
+keep pace with the spread of our population, and the comforts of
+friendly correspondence, the exchanges of internal traffic, and the
+lights of the periodical press shall be distributed to the remotest
+corners of the Union, at a charge scarcely perceptible to any
+individual, and without the cost of a dollar to the public Treasury.
+
+Upon this first occasion of addressing the Legislature of the Union,
+with which I have been honored, in presenting to their view the
+execution so far as it has been effected of the measures sanctioned by
+them for promoting the internal improvement of our country, I can not
+close the communication without recommending to their calm and
+persevering consideration the general principle in a more enlarged
+extent. The great object of the institution of civil government is the
+improvement of the condition of those who are parties to the social
+compact, and no government, in what ever form constituted, can
+accomplish the lawful ends of its institution but in proportion as it
+improves the condition of those over whom it is established. Roads and
+canals, by multiplying and facilitating the communications and
+intercourse between distant regions and multitudes of men, are among
+the most important means of improvement. But moral, political,
+intellectual improvement are duties assigned by the Author of Our
+Existence to social no less than to individual man.
+
+For the fulfillment of those duties governments are invested with
+power, and to the attainment of the end--the progressive improvement of
+the condition of the governed--the exercise of delegated powers is a
+duty as sacred and indispensable as the usurpation of powers not
+granted is criminal and odious.
+
+Among the first, perhaps the very first, instrument for the improvement
+of the condition of men is knowledge, and to the acquisition of much of
+the knowledge adapted to the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments of
+human life public institutions and seminaries of learning are
+essential. So convinced of this was the first of my predecessors in
+this office, now first in the memory, as, living, he was first in the
+hearts, of our country-men, that once and again in his addresses to the
+Congresses with whom he cooperated in the public service he earnestly
+recommended the establishment of seminaries of learning, to prepare for
+all the emergencies of peace and war--a national university and a
+military academy. With respect to the latter, had he lived to the
+present day, in turning his eyes to the institution at West Point he
+would have enjoyed the gratification of his most earnest wishes; but in
+surveying the city which has been honored with his name he would have
+seen the spot of earth which he had destined and bequeathed to the use
+and benefit of his country as the site for a university still bare and
+barren.
+
+In assuming her station among the civilized nations of the earth it
+would seem that our country had contracted the engagement to contribute
+her share of mind, of labor, and of expense to the improvement of those
+parts of knowledge which lie beyond the reach of individual
+acquisition, and particularly to geographical and astronomical science.
+Looking back to the history only of the half century since the
+declaration of our independence, and observing the generous emulation
+with which the Governments of France, Great Britain, and Russia have
+devoted the genius, the intelligence, the treasures of their respective
+nations to the common improvement of the species in these branches of
+science, is it not incumbent upon us to inquire whether we are not
+bound by obligations of a high and honorable character to contribute
+our portion of energy and exertion to the common stock? The voyages of
+discovery prosecuted in the course of that time at the expense of those
+nations have not only redounded to their glory, but to the improvement
+of human knowledge.
+
+We have been partakers of that improvement and owe for it a sacred
+debt, not only of gratitude, but of equal or proportional exertion in
+the same common cause. Of the cost of these undertakings, if the mere
+expenditures of outfit, equipment, and completion of the expeditions
+were to be considered the only charges, it would be unworthy of a great
+and generous nation to take a second thought. One hundred expeditions
+of circumnavigation like those of Cook and La Prouse would not burden
+the exchequer of the nation fitting them out so much as the ways and
+means of defraying a single campaign in war. But if we take into
+account the lives of those benefactors of man-kind of which their
+services in the cause of their species were the purchase, how shall the
+cost of those heroic enterprises be estimated, and what compensation
+can be made to them or to their countries for them? Is it not by
+bearing them in affectionate remembrance? Is it not still more by
+imitating their example--by enabling country-men of our own to pursue
+the same career and to hazard their lives in the same cause?
+
+In inviting the attention of Congress to the subject of internal
+improvements upon a view thus enlarged it is not my desire to recommend
+the equipment of an expedition for circumnavigating the globe for
+purposes of scientific research and inquiry. We have objects of useful
+investigation nearer home, and to which our cares may be more
+beneficially applied. The interior of our own territories has yet been
+very imperfectly explored. Our coasts along many degrees of latitude
+upon the shores of the Pacific Ocean, though much frequented by our
+spirited commercial navigators, have been barely visited by our public
+ships. The River of the West, first fully discovered and navigated by a
+country-man of our own, still bears the name of the ship in which he
+ascended its waters, and claims the protection of our armed national
+flag at its mouth. With the establishment of a military post there or
+at some other point of that coast, recommended by my predecessor and
+already matured in the deliberations of the last Congress, I would
+suggest the expediency of connecting the equipment of a public ship for
+the exploration of the whole north-west coast of this continent.
+
+The establishment of an uniform standard of weights and measures was
+one of the specific objects contemplated in the formation of our
+Constitution, and to fix that standard was on of the powers delegated
+by express terms in that instrument to Congress. The Governments of
+Great Britain and France have scarcely ceased to be occupied with
+inquiries and speculations on the same subject since the existence of
+our Constitution, and with them it has expanded into profound,
+laborious, and expensive researches into the figure of the earth and
+the comparative length of the pendulum vibrating seconds in various
+latitudes from the equator to the pole. These researches have resulted
+in the composition and publication of several works highly interesting
+to the cause of science. The experiments are yet in the process of
+performance. Some of them have recently been made on our own shores,
+within the walls of one of our own colleges, and partly by one of our
+own fellow citizens. It would be honorable to our country if the sequel
+of the same experiments should be countenanced by the patronage of our
+Government, as they have hitherto been by those of France and Britain.
+
+Connected with the establishment of an university, or separate from it,
+might be undertaken the erection of an astronomical observatory, with
+provision for the support of an astronomer, to be in constant
+attendance of observation upon the phenomena of the heavens, and for
+the periodical publication of his observances. It is with no feeling of
+pride as an American that the remark may be made that on the
+comparatively small territorial surface of Europe there are existing
+upward of 130 of these light-houses of the skies, while throughout the
+whole American hemisphere there is not one. If we reflect a moment upon
+the discoveries which in the last four centuries have been made in the
+physical constitution of the universe by the means of these buildings
+and of observers stationed in them, shall we doubt of their usefulness
+to every nation? And while scarcely a year passes over our heads
+without bringing some new astronomical discovery to light, which we
+must fain receive at second hand from Europe, are we not cutting
+ourselves off from the means of returning light for light while we have
+neither observatory nor observer upon our half of the globe and the
+earth revolves in perpetual darkness to our unsearching eyes?
+
+When, on October 25th, 1791, the first President of the United States
+announced to Congress the result of the first enumeration of the
+inhabitants of this Union, he informed them that the returns gave the
+pleasing assurance that the population of the United States bordered on
+4,000,000 persons. At the distance of 30 years from that time the last
+enumeration, five years since completed, presented a population
+bordering on 10,000,000. Perhaps of all the evidence of a prosperous
+and happy condition of human society the rapidity of the increase of
+population is the most unequivocal. But the demonstration of our
+prosperity rests not alone upon this indication.
+
+Our commerce, our wealth, and the extent of our territories have
+increased in corresponding proportions, and the number of independent
+communities associated in our Federal Union has since that time nearly
+doubled. The legislative representation of the States and people in the
+two Houses of Congress has grown with the growth of their constituent
+bodies. The House, which then consisted of 65 members, now numbers
+upward of 200. The Senate, which consisted of 26 members, has now 48.
+But the executive and, still more, the judiciary departments are yet in
+a great measure confined to their primitive organization, and are now
+not adequate to the urgent wants of a still growing community.
+
+The naval armaments, which at an early period forced themselves upon
+the necessities of the Union, soon led to the establishment of a
+Department of the Navy. But the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of
+the Interior, which early after the formation of the Government had
+been united in one, continue so united to this time, to the
+unquestionable detriment of the public service. The multiplication of
+our relations with the nations and Governments of the Old World has
+kept pace with that of our population and commerce, while within the
+last ten years a new family of nations in our own hemisphere has arisen
+among the inhabitants of the earth, with whom our intercourse,
+commercial and political, would of itself furnish occupation to an
+active and industrious department.
+
+The constitution of the judiciary, experimental and imperfect as it was
+even in the infancy of our existing Government, is yet more inadequate
+to the administration of national justice at our present maturity. Nine
+years have elapsed since a predecessor in this office, now not the
+last, the citizen who, perhaps, of all others throughout the Union
+contributed most to the formation and establishment of our
+Constitution, in his valedictory address to Congress, immediately
+preceding his retirement from public life, urgently recommended the
+revision of the judiciary and the establishment of an additional
+executive department. The exigencies of the public service and its
+unavoidable deficiencies, as now in exercise, have added yearly
+cumulative weight to the considerations presented by him as persuasive
+to the measure, and in recommending it to your deliberations I am happy
+to have the influence of this high authority in aid of the undoubting
+convictions of my own experience.
+
+The laws relating to the administration of the Patent Office are
+deserving of much consideration and perhaps susceptible of some
+improvement. The grant of power to regulate the action of Congress upon
+this subject has specified both the end to be obtained and the means by
+which it is to be effected, "to promote the progress of science and
+useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the
+exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries". If an
+honest pride might be indulged in the reflection that on the records of
+that office are already found inventions the usefulness of which has
+scarcely been transcended in the annals of human ingenuity, would not
+its exultation be allayed by the inquiry whether the laws have
+effectively insured to the inventors the reward destined to them by the
+Constitution--even a limited term of exclusive right to their
+discoveries?
+
+On December 24th, 1799, it was resolved by Congress that a marble
+monument should be erected by the United States in the Capitol at the
+city of Washington; that the family of General Washington should be
+requested to permit his body to be deposited under it, and that the
+monument be so designed as to commemorate the great events of his
+military and political life. In reminding Congress of this resolution
+and that the monument contemplated by it remains yet without execution,
+I shall indulge only the remarks that the works at the Capitol are
+approaching to completion; that the consent of the family, desired by
+the resolution, was requested and obtained; that a monument has been
+recently erected in this city over the remains of another distinguished
+patriot of the Revolution, and that a spot has been reserved within the
+walls where you are deliberating for the benefit of this and future
+ages, in which the mortal remains may be deposited of him whose spirit
+hovers over you and listens with delight to every act of the
+representatives of his nation which can tend to exalt and adorn his and
+their country.
+
+The Constitution under which you are assembled is a charter of limited
+powers. After full and solemn deliberation upon all or any of the
+objects which, urged by an irresistible sense of my own duty, I have
+recommended to your attention should you come to the conclusion that,
+however desirable in themselves, the enactment of laws for effecting
+them would transcend the powers committed to you by that venerable
+instrument which we are all bound to support, let no consideration
+induce you to assume the exercise of powers not granted to you by the
+people.
+
+But if the power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases what so
+ever over the District of Columbia; if the power to lay and collect
+taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for
+the common defense and general welfare of the United States; if the
+power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several
+States and with the Indian tribes, to fix the standard of weights and
+measures, to establish post offices and post roads, to declare war, to
+raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a navy, to dispose of
+and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or
+other property belonging to the United States, and to make all laws
+which shall be necessary and proper for carrying these powers into
+execution--if these powers and others enumerated in the Constitution
+may be effectually brought into action by laws promoting the
+improvement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, the cultivation
+and encouragement of the mechanic and of the elegant arts, the
+advancement of literature, and the progress of the sciences, ornamental
+and profound, to refrain from exercising them for the benefit of the
+people themselves would be to hide in the earth the talent committed to
+our charge--would be treachery to the most sacred of trusts.
+
+The spirit of improvement is abroad upon the earth. It stimulates the
+hearts and sharpens the faculties not of our fellow citizens alone, but
+of the nations of Europe and of their rulers. While dwelling with
+pleasing satisfaction upon the superior excellence of our political
+institutions, let us not be unmindful that liberty is power; that the
+nation blessed with the largest portion of liberty must in proportion
+to its numbers be the most powerful nation upon earth, and that the
+tenure of power by man is, in the moral purposes of his Creator, upon
+condition that it shall be exercised to ends of beneficence, to improve
+the condition of himself and his fellow men.
+
+While foreign nations less blessed with that freedom which is power
+than ourselves are advancing with gigantic strides in the career of
+public improvement, were we to slumber in indolence or fold up our arms
+and proclaim to the world that we are palsied by the will of our
+constituents, would it not be to cast away the bounties of Providence
+and doom ourselves to perpetual inferiority? In the course of the year
+now drawing to its close we have beheld, under the auspices and at the
+expense of one State of this Union, a new university unfolding its
+portals to the sons of science and holding up the torch of human
+improvement to eyes that seek the light. We have seen under the
+persevering and enlightened enterprise of another State the waters of
+our Western lakes mingle with those of the ocean. If undertakings like
+these have been accomplished in the compass of a few years by the
+authority of single members of our Confederation, can we, the
+representative authorities of the whole Union, fall behind our fellow
+servants in the exercise of the trust committed to us for the benefit
+of our common sovereign by the accomplishment of works important to the
+whole and to which neither the authority nor the resources of any one
+State can be adequate?
+
+Finally, fellow citizens, I shall await with cheering hope and faithful
+cooperation the result of your deliberations, assured that, without
+encroaching upon the powers reserved to the authorities of the
+respective States or to the people, you will, with a due sense of your
+obligations to your country and of the high responsibilities weighing
+upon yourselves, give efficacy to the means committed to you for the
+common good. And may He who searches the hearts of the children of men
+prosper your exertions to secure the blessings of peace and promote the
+highest welfare of your country.
+
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+John Quincy Adams
+December 5, 1826
+
+Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
+
+The assemblage of the representatives of our Union in both Houses of
+the Congress at this time occurs under circumstances calling for the
+renewed homage of our grateful acknowledgments to the Giver of All
+Good. With the exceptions incidental to the most felicitous condition
+of human existence, we continue to be highly favored in all the
+elements which contribute to individual comfort and to national
+prosperity. In the survey of our extensive country we have generally to
+observe abodes of health and regions of plenty. In our civil and
+political relations we have peace without and tranquillity within our
+borders. We are, as a people, increasing with unabated rapidity in
+population, wealth, and national resources, and whatever differences of
+opinion exist among us with regard to the mode and the means by which
+we shall turn the beneficence of Heaven to the improvement of our own
+condition, there is yet a spirit animating us all which will not suffer
+the bounties of Providence to be showered upon us in vain, but will
+receive them with grateful hearts, and apply them with unwearied hands
+to the advancement of the general good.
+
+Of the subjects recommended to Congress at their last session, some
+were then definitively acted upon. Others, left unfinished, but partly
+matured, will recur to your attention without needing a renewal of
+notice from me. The purpose of this communication will be to present to
+your view the general aspect of our public affairs at this moment and
+the measures which have been taken to carry into effect the intentions
+of the Legislature as signified by the laws then and heretofore
+enacted.
+
+In our intercourse with the other nations of the earth we have still
+the happiness of enjoying peace and a general good understanding,
+qualified, however, in several important instances by collisions of
+interest and by unsatisfied claims of justice, to the settlement of
+which the constitutional interposition of the legislative authority may
+become ultimately indispensable.
+
+By the decease of the Emperor Alexander of Russia, which occurred
+contemporaneously with the commencement of the last session of
+Congress, the United States have been deprived of a long tried, steady,
+and faithful friend. Born to the inheritance of absolute power and
+trained in the school of adversity, from which no power on earth,
+however absolute, is exempt, that monarch from his youth had been
+taught to feel the force and value of public opinion and to be sensible
+that the interests of his own Government would best be promoted by a
+frank and friendly intercourse with this Republic, as those of his
+people would be advanced by a liberal intercourse with our country. A
+candid and confidential interchange of sentiments between him and the
+Government of the United States upon the affairs of Southern America
+took place at a period not long preceding his demise, and contributed
+to fix that course of policy which left to the other Governments of
+Europe no alternative but that of sooner or later recognizing the
+independence of our southern neighbors, of which the example had by the
+United States already been set.
+
+The ordinary diplomatic communications between his successor, the
+Emperor Nicholas, and the United States have suffered some interruption
+by the illness, departure, and subsequent decease of his minister
+residing here, who enjoyed, as he merited, the entire confidence of his
+new sovereign, as he had eminently responded to that of his
+predecessor. But we have had the most satisfactory assurances that the
+sentiments of the reigning Emperor toward the United States are
+altogether conformable to those which had so long and constantly
+animated his imperial brother, and we have reason to hope that they
+will serve to cement that harmony and good understanding between the
+two nations which, founded in congenial interests, can not but result
+in the advancement of the welfare and prosperity of both.
+
+Our relations of commerce and navigation with France are, by the
+operation of the convention of June 24th, 1822, with that nation, in a
+state of gradual and progressive improvement. Convinced by all our
+experience, no less than by the principles of fair and liberal
+reciprocity which the United States have constantly tendered to all the
+nations of the earth as the rule of commercial intercourse which they
+would universally prefer, that fair and equal competition is most
+conducive to the interests of both parties, the United States in the
+negotiation of that convention earnestly contended for a mutual
+renunciation of discriminating duties and charges in the ports of the
+two countries. Unable to obtain the immediate recognition of this
+principle in its full extent, after reducing the duties of
+discrimination so far as was found attainable it was agreed that at the
+expiration of two years from October 1st, 1822, when the convention was
+to go into effect, unless a notice of six months on either side should
+be given to the other that the convention itself must terminate, those
+duties should be reduced one quarter, and that this reduction should be
+yearly repeated, until all discrimination should cease, while the
+convention itself should continue in force. By the effect of this
+stipulation three quarters of the discriminating duties which had been
+levied by each party upon the vessels of the other in its ports have
+already been removed; and on the first of next October, should the
+convention be still in force, the remaining one quarter will be
+discontinued. French vessels laden with French produce will be received
+in our ports on the same terms as our own, and ours in return will
+enjoy the same advantages in the ports of France.
+
+By these approximations to an equality of duties and of charges not
+only has the commerce between the two countries prospered, but friendly
+dispositions have been on both sides encouraged and promoted. They will
+continue to be cherished and cultivated on the part of the United
+States. It would have been gratifying to have had it in my power to add
+that the claims upon the justice of the French Government, involving
+the property and the comfortable subsistence of many of our fellow
+citizens, and which have been so long and so earnestly urged, were in a
+more promising train of adjustment than at your last meeting; but their
+condition remains unaltered.
+
+With the Government of the Netherlands the mutual abandonment of
+discriminating duties had been regulated by legislative acts on both
+sides. The act of Congress of April 20th, 1818, abolished all
+discriminating duties of impost and tonnage upon the vessels and
+produce of the Netherlands in the ports of the United States upon the
+assurance given by the Government of the Netherlands that all such
+duties operating against the shipping and commerce of the United States
+in that Kingdom had been abolished. These reciprocal regulations had
+continued in force several years when the discriminating principle was
+resumed by the Netherlands in a new and indirect form by a bounty of
+10% in the shape of a return of duties to their national vessels, and
+in which those of the United States are not permitted to participate.
+By the act of Congress of January 7th, 1824, all discriminating duties
+in the United States were again suspended, so far as related to the
+vessels and produce of the Netherlands, so long as the reciprocal
+exemption should be extended to the vessels and produce of the United
+States in the Netherlands. But the same act provides that in the event
+of a restoration of discriminating duties to operate against the
+shipping and commerce of the United States in any of the foreign
+countries referred to therein the suspension of discriminating duties
+in favor of the navigation of such foreign country should cease and all
+the provisions of the acts imposing discriminating foreign tonnage and
+impost duties in the United States should revive and be in full force
+with regard to that nation.
+
+In the correspondence with the Government of the Netherlands upon this
+subject they have contended that the favor shown to their own shipping
+by this bounty upon their tonnage is not to be considered a
+discriminating duty; but it can not be denied that it produces all the
+same effects. Had the mutual abolition been stipulated by treaty, such
+a bounty upon the national vessels could scarcely have been granted
+consistent with good faith. Yet as the act of Congress of January 7th,
+1824 has not expressly authorized the Executive authority to determine
+what shall be considered as a revival of discriminating duties by a
+foreign government to the disadvantage of the United States, and as the
+retaliatory measure on our part, however just and necessary, may tend
+rather to that conflict of legislation which we deprecate than to that
+concert to which we invite all commercial nations, as most conducive to
+their interest and our own, I have thought it more consistent with the
+spirit of our institutions to refer to the subject again to the
+paramount authority of the Legislature to decide what measure the
+emergency may require than abruptly by proclamation to carry into
+effect the minatory provisions of the act of 1824.
+
+During the last session of Congress treaties of amity, navigation, and
+commerce were negotiated and signed at this place with the Government
+of Denmark, in Europe, and with the Federation of Central America, in
+this hemisphere. These treaties then received the constitutional
+sanction of the Senate, by the advice and consent to their
+ratification. They were accordingly ratified on the part of the United
+States, and during the recess of Congress have been also ratified by
+the other respective contracting parties. The ratifications have been
+exchanged, and they have been published by proclamations, copies of
+which are herewith communicated to Congress.
+
+These treaties have established between the contracting parties the
+principles of equality and reciprocity in their broadest and most
+liberal extent, each party admitting the vessels of the other into its
+ports, laden with cargoes the produce or manufacture of any quarter of
+the globe, upon the payment of the same duties of tonnage and impost
+that are chargeable upon their own. They have further stipulated that
+the parties shall hereafter grant no favor of navigation or commerce to
+any other nation which shall not upon the same terms be granted to each
+other, and that neither party will impose upon articles of merchandise
+the produce or manufacture of the other any other or higher duties than
+upon the like articles being the produce or manufacture of any other
+country. To these principles there is in the convention with Denmark an
+exception with regard to the colonies of that Kingdom in the arctic
+seas, but none with regard to her colonies in the West Indies.
+
+In the course of the last summer the term to which our last commercial
+treaty with Sweden was limited has expired. A continuation of it is in
+the contemplation of the Swedish Government, and is believed to be
+desirable on the part of the United States. It has been proposed by the
+King of Sweden that pending the negotiation of renewal the expired
+treaty should be mutually considered as still in force, a measure which
+will require the sanction of Congress to be carried into effect on our
+part, and which I therefore recommend to your consideration.
+
+With Prussia, Spain, Portugal, and, in general, all the European powers
+between whom and the United States relations of friendly intercourse
+have existed their condition has not materially varied since the last
+session of Congress. I regret not to be able to say the same of our
+commercial intercourse with the colonial possessions of Great Britain
+in America. Negotiations of the highest importance to our common
+interests have been for several years in discussion between the two
+Governments, and on the part of the United States have been invariably
+pursued in the spirit of candor and conciliation. Interests of great
+magnitude and delicacy had been adjusted by the conventions of 1815 and
+1818, while that of 1822, mediated by the late Emperor Alexander, had
+promised a satisfactory compromise of claims which the Government of
+the United States, in justice to the rights of a numerous class of
+their citizens, was bound to sustain.
+
+But with regard to the commercial intercourse between the United States
+and the British colonies in America, it has been hitherto found
+impracticable to bring the parties to an understanding satisfactory to
+both. The relative geographical position and the respective products of
+nature cultivated by human industry had constituted the elements of a
+commercial intercourse between the United States and British America,
+insular and continental, important to the inhabitants of both
+countries; but it had been interdicted by Great Britain upon a
+principle heretofore practiced upon by the colonizing nations of
+Europe, of holding the trade of their colonies each in exclusive
+monopoly to herself.
+
+After the termination of the late war this interdiction had been
+revived, and the British Government declined including this portion of
+our intercourse with her possessions in the negotiation of the
+convention of 1815. The trade was then carried on exclusively in
+British vessels 'til the act of Congress, concerning navigation, of
+1818 and the supplemental act of 1820 met the interdict by a
+corresponding measure on the part of the United States. These measures,
+not of retaliation, but of necessary self defense, were soon succeeded
+by an act of Parliament opening certain colonial ports to the vessels
+of the United States coming directly from them, and to the importation
+from them of certain articles of our produce burdened with heavy
+duties, and excluding some of the most valuable articles of our
+exports. The United States opened their ports to British vessels from
+the colonies upon terms as exactly corresponding with those of the act
+of Parliament as in the relative position of the parties could be made,
+and a negotiation was commenced by mutual consent, with the hope on our
+part that a reciprocal spirit of accommodation and a common sentiment
+of the importance of the trade to the interests of the inhabitants of
+the two countries between whom it must be carried on would ultimately
+bring the parties to a compromise with which both might be satisfied.
+With this view the Government of the United States had determined to
+sacrifice something of that entire reciprocity which in all commercial
+arrangements with foreign powers they are entitled to demand, and to
+acquiesce in some inequalities disadvantageous to ourselves rather than
+to forego the benefit of a final and permanent adjustment of this
+interest to the satisfaction of Great Britain herself. The negotiation,
+repeatedly suspended by accidental circumstances, was, however, by
+mutual agreement and express assent, considered as pending and to be
+speedily resumed.
+
+In the mean time another act of Parliament, so doubtful and ambiguous
+in its import as to have been misunderstood by the officers in the
+colonies who were to carry it into execution, opens again certain
+colonial ports upon new conditions and terms, with a threat to close
+them against any nation which may not accept those terms as prescribed
+by the British Government. This act, passed July, 1825, not
+communicated to the Government of the United States, not understood by
+the British officers of the customs in the colonies where it was to be
+enforced, was never the less submitted to the consideration of Congress
+at their last session. With the knowledge that a negotiation upon the
+subject had long been in progress and pledges given of its resumption
+at an early day, it was deemed expedient to await the result of that
+negotiation rather than to subscribe implicitly to terms the import of
+which was not clear and which the British authorities themselves in
+this hemisphere were not prepared to explain.
+
+Immediately after the close of the last session of Congress one of our
+most distinguished citizens was dispatched as envoy extraordinary and
+minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain, furnished with instructions
+which we could not doubt would lead to a conclusion of this long
+controverted interest upon terms acceptable to Great Britain. Upon his
+arrival, and before he had delivered his letters of credence, he was
+bet by an order of the British council excluding from and after the
+first of December now current the vessels of the United States from all
+the colonial British ports excepting those immediately bordering on our
+territories. In answer to his expostulations upon a measure thus
+unexpected he is informed that according to the ancient maxims of
+policy of European nations having colonies their trade is an exclusive
+possession of the mother country; that all participation in it by other
+nations is a boon or favor not forming a subject of negotiation, but to
+be regulated by the legislative acts of the power owning the colony;
+that the British Government therefore declines negotiating concerning
+it, and that as the United States did not forthwith accept purely and
+simply the terms offered by the act of Parliament of July, 1825, Great
+Britain would not now admit the vessels of the United States even upon
+the terms on which she has opened them to the navigation of other
+nations.
+
+We have been accustomed to consider the trade which we have enjoyed
+with the British colonies rather as an interchange of mutual benefits
+than as a mere favor received; that under every circumstance we have
+given an ample equivalent. We have seen every other nation holding
+colonies negotiate with other nations and grant them freely admission
+to the colonies by treaty, and so far are the other colonizing nations
+of Europe now from refusing to negotiate for trade with their colonies
+that we ourselves have secured access to the colonies of more than one
+of them by treaty. The refusal, however, of Great Britain to negotiate
+leaves to the United States no other alternative than that of
+regulating or interdicting altogether the trade on their part,
+according as either measure may effect the interests of our own
+country, and with that exclusive object I would recommend the whole
+subject to your calm and candid deliberations.
+
+It is hoped that our unavailing exertions to accomplish a cordial good
+understanding on this interest will not have an unpropitious effect
+upon the other great topics of discussion between the two Governments.
+Our north-eastern and north-western boundaries are still unadjusted.
+The commissioners under the 7th article of the treaty of Ghent have
+nearly come to the close of their labors; nor can we renounce the
+expectation, enfeebled as it is, that they may agree upon their report
+to the satisfaction or acquiescence of both parties. The commission for
+liquidating the claims for indemnity for slaves carried away after the
+close of the war has been sitting, with doubtful prospects of success.
+Propositions of compromise have, however, passed between the two
+Governments, the result of which we flatter ourselves may yet prove
+unsatisfactory. Our own dispositions and purposes toward Great Britain
+are all friendly and conciliatory; nor can we abandon but with strong
+reluctance the belief that they will ultimately meet a return, not of
+favors, which we neither as nor desire, but of equal reciprocity and
+good will.
+
+With the American Governments of this hemisphere we continue to
+maintain an intercourse altogether friendly, and between their nations
+and ours that commercial interchange of which mutual benefit is the
+source of mutual comfort and harmony the result is in a continual state
+of improvement. The war between Spain and them since the total
+expulsion of the Spanish military force from their continental
+territories has been little more than nominal, and their internal
+tranquillity, though occasionally menaced by the agitations which civil
+wars never fail to leave behind them, has not been affected by any
+serious calamity.
+
+The congress of ministers from several of those nations which assembled
+at Panama, after a short session there, adjourned to meet again at a
+more favorable season in the neighborhood of Mexico. The decease of one
+of our ministers on his way to the Isthmus, and the impediments of the
+season, which delayed the departure of the other, deprived United
+States of the advantage of being represented at the first meeting of
+the congress. There is, however, no reason to believe that any
+transactions of the congress were of a nature to affect injuriously the
+interests of the United States or to require the interposition of our
+ministers had they been present. Their absence has, indeed, deprived
+United States of the opportunity of possessing precise and authentic
+information of the treaties which were concluded at Panama; and the
+whole result has confirmed me in the conviction of the expediency to
+the United States of being represented at the congress. The surviving
+member of the mission, appointed during your last session, has
+accordingly proceeded to his destination, and a successor to his
+distinguished and lamented associate will be nominated to the Senate. A
+treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce has in the course of the last
+summer been concluded by our minister plenipotentiary at Mexico with
+the united states of that Confederacy, which will also be laid before
+the Senate for their advice with regard to its ratification.
+
+In adverting to the present condition of our fiscal concerns and to the
+prospects of our revenue the first remark that calls our attention is
+that they are less exuberantly prosperous than they were at the
+corresponding period of the last year. The severe shock so extensively
+sustained by the commercial and manufacturing interests in Great
+Britain has not been without a perceptible recoil upon ourselves. A
+reduced importation from abroad is necessarily succeeded by a reduced
+return to the Treasury at home. The net revenue of the present year
+will not equal that of the last, and the receipts of that which is to
+come will fall short of those in the current year. The diminution,
+however, is in part attributable to the flourishing condition of some
+of our domestic manufactures, and so far is compensated by an
+equivalent more profitable to the nation.
+
+It is also highly gratifying to perceive that the deficiency in the
+revenue, while it scarcely exceeds the anticipations of the last year's
+estimate from the Treasury, has not interrupted the application of more
+than $11 millions during the present year to the discharge of the
+principal and interest of the debt, nor the reduction of upward of
+$7,000,000 of the capital of the debt itself. The balance in the
+Treasury on the first of January last was $5,201,650.43; the receipts
+from that time to the 30th of September last were $19,585,932.50; the
+receipts of the current quarter, estimated at $6,000,000, yield, with
+the sums already received, a revenue of about $25,500,000 for the year;
+the expenditures for the first 3 quarters of the year have amounted to
+$18,714,226.66; the expenditures of the current quarter are expected,
+including the $2,000,000 of the principal of the debt to be paid, to
+balance the receipts; so that the expense of the year, amounting to
+upward of $1,000,000 less than its income, will leave a proportionally
+increased balance in the Treasury on January 1st, 1827, over that of
+the first of January last; instead of $5,200,000 there will be
+$6,400,000.
+
+The amount of duties secured on merchandise imported from the commence
+of the year 'til September 30 is estimated at $21,250,000, and the
+amount that will probably accrue during the present quarter is
+estimated at $4,250,000, making for the whole year $25,500,000, from
+which the draw-backs being deducted will leave a clear revenue from the
+customs receivable in the year 1827 of about $20,400,000, which, with
+the sums to be received from the proceeds of public lands, the bank
+dividends, and other incidental receipts, will form an aggregate of
+about $23,000,000, a sum falling short of the whole expenses of the
+present year little more than the portion of those expenditures applied
+to the discharge of the public debt beyond the annual appropriation of
+$10,000,000 by the act of March 3d, 1817. At the passage of that act
+the public debt amounted to $123,500,000. On the first of January next
+it will be short of $74,000,000. In the lapse of these 10 years
+$50,000,000 of public debt, with the annual charge of upward of
+$3,000,000 of interest upon them, have been extinguished. At the
+passage of tat act, of the annual appropriation of $10,000,000,
+$7,000,000 were absorbed in the payment of interest, and not more than
+$3,000,000 went to reduce the capital of the debt. Of the same
+$10,000,000, at this time scarcely $4,000,000 are applicable to the
+interest and upward of $6,000,000 are effective in melting down the
+capital.
+
+Yet our experience has proved that a revenue consisting so largely of
+imposts and tonnage ebbs and flows to an extraordinary extent, with all
+the fluctuations incident to the general commerce of the world. It is
+within our recollection that even in the compass of the same last ten
+years the receipts of the Treasury were not adequate to the
+expenditures of the year, and that in two successive years it was found
+necessary to resort to loans to meet the engagements of the nation. The
+returning tides of the succeeding years replenished the public coffers
+until they have again begun to feel the vicissitude of a decline. To
+produce these alternations of fullness and exhaustion the relative
+operation of abundant or unfruitful seasons, the regulations of foreign
+governments, political revolutions, the prosperous or decaying
+condition of manufactures, commercial speculations, and many other
+causes, not always to be traced, variously combine.
+
+We have found the alternate swells and diminutions embracing periods of
+from two to three years. The last period of depression to United States
+was from 1819 to 1822. The corresponding revival was from 1823 to the
+commencement of the present year. Still, we have no cause to apprehend
+a depression comparable to that of the former period, or even to
+anticipate a deficiency which will intrench upon the ability to apply
+the annual $10 millions to the reduction of the debt. It is well for
+us, however, to be admonished of the necessity of abiding by the maxims
+of the most vigilant economy, and of resorting to all honorable and
+useful expedients for pursuing with steady and inflexible perseverance
+the total discharge of the debt.
+
+Besides the $7,000,000 of the loans of 1813 which will have been
+discharged in the course of the present year, there are $9,000,000
+which by the terms of the contracts would have been and are now
+redeemable. $13,000,000 more of the loan of 1814 will become redeemable
+from and after the expiration of the present month, and $9,000,000
+other from and after the close of the ensuing year. They constitute a
+mass of $31,000,000, all bearing an interest of 6%, more than
+$20,000,000 of which will be immediately redeemable, and the rest
+within little more than a year. Leaving of this amount $15,000,000 to
+continue at the interest of 6%, but to be paid off as far as shall be
+found practicable in the years 1827 and 1828, there is scarcely a doubt
+that the remaining $16,000,000 might within a few months be discharged
+by a loan at not exceeding 5%, redeemable in the years 1829 and 1830.
+By this operation a sum of nearly $500,000 may be saved to the nation,
+and the discharge of the whole $31,000,000 within the four years may be
+greatly facilitated if not wholly accomplished.
+
+By an act of Congress of March 3d, 1825, a loan for the purpose now
+referred to, or a subscription to stock, was authorized, at an interest
+not exceeding 4.5%. But at that time so large a portion of the floating
+capital of the country was absorbed in commercial speculations and so
+little was left for investment in the stocks that the measure was but
+partially successful. At the last session of Congress the condition of
+the funds was still unpropitious to the measure; but the change so soon
+afterwards occurred that, had the authority existed to redeem the $9
+millions now redeemable by an exchange of stocks or a loan at 5%, it is
+morally certain that it might have been effected, and with it a yearly
+saving of $90,000.
+
+With regard to the collection of the revenue of imposts, certain
+occurrences have within the last year been disclosed in one or two of
+our principal ports, which engaged the attention of Congress at their
+last session and may hereafter require further consideration. Until
+within a very few years the execution of the laws for raising the
+revenue, like that of all our other laws, has been insured more by the
+moral sense of the community than by the rigors of a jealous precaution
+or by penal sanction. Confiding in the exemplary punctuality and
+unsullied integrity of our importing merchants, a gradual relaxation
+from the provisions of the collection laws, a close adherence to which
+have caused inconvenience and expense to them, had long become
+habitual, and indulgences had been extended universally because they
+had never been abused. It may be worthy of your serious consideration
+whether some further legislative provision may not be necessary to come
+in aid of this state of unguarded security.
+
+From the reports herewith communicated of the Secretaries of War and of
+the Navy, with the subsidiary documents annexed to them, will be
+discovered the present condition and administration of our military
+establishment on the land and on the sea. The organization of the Army
+having undergone no change since its reduction to the present peace
+establishment in 1821, it remains only to observe that it is yet found
+adequate to all the purposes for which a permanent armed force in time
+of peace can be needed or useful. It may be proper to add that, from a
+difference of opinion between the late President of the United States
+and the Senate with regard to the construction of the act of Congress
+of March 2d, 1821, to reduce and fix the military peace establishment
+of the United States, it remains hitherto so far without execution that
+no colonel has been appointed to command one of the regiments of
+artillery. A supplementary or explanatory act of the Legislature
+appears to be the only expedient practicable for removing the
+difficulty of this appointment.
+
+In a period of profound peace the conduct of the mere military
+establishment forms but a very inconsiderable portion of the duties
+devolving upon the administration of the Department of War. It will be
+seen by the returns from the subordinate departments of the Army that
+every branch of the service is marked with order, regularity, and
+discipline; that from the commanding general through all the gradations
+of superintendence the officers feel themselves to have been citizens
+before they were soldiers, and that the glory of a republican army must
+consist in the spirit of freedom, by which it is animated, and of
+patriotism, by which it is impelled. It may be confidently stated that
+the moral character of the Army is in a state of continual improvement,
+and that all the arrangements for the disposal of its parts have a
+constant reference to that end.
+
+But to the War Department are attributed other duties, having, indeed,
+relation to a future possible condition of war, but being purely
+defensive, and in their tendency contributing rather to the security
+and permanency of peace--the erection of the fortifications provided
+for by Congress, and adapted to secure our shores from hostile
+invasion; the distribution of the fund of public gratitude and justice
+to the pensioners of the Revolutionary war; the maintenance of our
+relations of peace and protection with the Indian tribes, and the
+internal improvements and surveys for the location of roads and canals,
+which during the last three sessions of Congress have engaged so much
+of their attention, and may engross so large a share of their future
+benefactions to our country.
+
+By the act of April 30th, 1824, suggested and approved by my
+predecessor, the sum of $30,000 was appropriated for the purpose of
+causing to be made the necessary surveys, plans, and estimates of the
+routes of such roads and canals as the President of the United States
+might deem of national importance in a commercial or military point of
+view, or necessary for the transportation of the public mail. The
+surveys, plans, and estimates for each, when completed, will be laid
+before Congress.
+
+In execution of this act a board of engineers was immediately
+instituted, and have been since most assiduously and constantly
+occupied in carrying it into effect. The first object to which their
+labors were directed, by order of the late President, was the
+examination of the country between the tide waters of the Potomac, the
+Ohio, and Lake Erie, to ascertain the practicability of a communication
+between them, to designate the most suitable route for the same, and to
+form plans and estimates in detail of the expense of execution.
+
+On March 2d, 1825, they made their first report, which was immediately
+communicated to Congress, and in which they declared that having
+maturely considered the circumstances observed by them personally, and
+carefully studied the results of such of the preliminary surveys as
+were then completed, they were decidedly of opinion that the
+communication was practicable.
+
+At the last session of Congress, before the board of engineers were
+enabled to make up their second report containing a general plan and
+preparatory estimate for the work, the Committee of the House of
+Representatives upon Roads and Canals closed the session with a report
+expressing the hope that the plan and estimate of the board of
+engineers might at this time be prepared, and that the subject be
+referred to the early and favorable consideration of Congress at their
+present session. That expected report of the board of engineers is
+prepared, and will forthwith be laid before you.
+
+Under the resolution of Congress authorizing the Secretary of War to
+have prepared a complete system of cavalry tactics, and a system of
+exercise and instruction of field artillery, for the use of the militia
+of the United States, to be reported to Congress at the present
+session, a board of distinguished officers of the Army and of the
+militia has been convened, whose report will be submitted to you with
+that of the Secretary of War. The occasion was thought favorable for
+consulting the same board, aided by the results of a correspondence
+with the governors of the several States and Territories and other
+citizens of intelligence and experience, upon the acknowledged
+defective condition of our militia system, and of the improvements of
+which it is susceptible. The report of the board upon this subject is
+also submitted for your consideration.
+
+In the estimates of appropriations for the ensuing year upward of $5
+millions will be submitted for the expenditures to be paid from the
+Department of War. Less than two fifths of this will be applicable to
+the maintenance and support of the Army. $1,500,000, in the form of
+pensions, goes as a scarcely adequate tribute to the services and
+sacrifices of a former age, and a more than equal sum invested in
+fortifications, or for the preparations of internal improvement,
+provides for the quiet, the comfort, and happier existence of the ages
+to come. The appropriations to indemnify those unfortunate remnants of
+another race unable alike to share in the enjoyments and to exist in
+the presence of civilization, though swelling in recent years to a
+magnitude burdensome to the Treasury, are generally not without their
+equivalents in profitable value, or serve to discharge the Union from
+engagements more burdensome than debt.
+
+In like manner the estimate of appropriations for the Navy Department
+will present an aggregate sum of upward of $3,000,000. About half of
+these, however, covers the current expenditures of the Navy in actual
+service, and half constitutes a fund of national property, the pledge
+of our future glory and defense. It was scarcely one short year after
+the close of the late war, and when the burden of its expenses and
+charges was weighing heaviest upon the country, that Congress, by the
+act of April 29th, 1816, appropriated $1,000,000 annually for eight
+years to the gradual increase of the Navy. At a subsequent period this
+annual appropriation was reduced to $500,000 for six years, of which
+the present year is the last. A yet more recent appropriation the last
+two years, for building ten sloops of war, has nearly restored the
+original appropriation of 1816 of $1,000,000 for every year.
+
+The result is before United States all. We have 12 line-of-battle
+ships, 20 frigates, and sloops of war in proportion, which, with a few
+months preparation, may present a line of floating fortifications along
+the whole range of our coast ready to meet any invader who might
+attempt to set foot upon our shores. Combining with a system of
+fortifications upon the shores themselves, commenced about the same
+time under the auspices of my immediate predecessor, and hitherto
+systematically pursued, it has placed in our possession the most
+effective sinews of war and has left us at once an example and a lesson
+from which our own duties may be inferred.
+
+The gradual increase of the Navy was the principle of which the act of
+April 29th, 1816, was the first development. It was the introduction of
+a system to act upon the character and history of our country for an
+indefinite series of ages. It was a declaration of that Congress to
+their constituents and to posterity that it was the destiny and the
+duty of these confederated States to become in regular process of time
+and by no petty advances a great naval power. That which they proposed
+to accomplish in eight years is rather to be considered as the measure
+of their means that the limitation of their design. They looked forward
+for a term of years sufficient for the accomplishment of a definite
+portion of their purpose, and they left to their successors to fill up
+the canvas of which they had traced the large and prophetic outline.
+The ships of the line and frigates which they had in contemplation will
+be shortly completed. The time which they had allotted for the
+accomplishment of the work has more than elapsed. It remains for your
+consideration how their successors may contribute their portion of toil
+and of treasure for the benefit of the succeeding age in the gradual
+increase of our Navy.
+
+There is perhaps no part of the exercise of the constitutional powers
+of the Federal Government which has given more general satisfaction to
+the people of the Union than this. The system has not been thus
+vigorously introduced and hitherto sustained to be now departed from or
+abandoned. In continuing to provide for the gradual increase of the
+Navy it may not be necessary or expedient to add for the present any
+more to the number of our ships; but should you deem it advisable to
+continue the yearly appropriation of $0.5 millions to the same objects,
+it may be profitably expended in a providing a supply of timber to be
+seasoned and other materials for future use in the construction of
+docks or in laying the foundations of a school for naval education, as
+to the wisdom of Congress either of those measures may appear to claim
+the preference.
+
+Of the small portions of this Navy engaged in actual service during the
+peace, squadrons have continued to be maintained in the Pacific Ocean,
+in the West India seas, and in the Mediterranean, to which has been
+added a small armament to cruise on the eastern coast of South America.
+In all they have afforded protection to our commerce, have contributed
+to make our country advantageously known to foreign nations, have
+honorably employed multitudes of our sea men in the service of their
+country, and have inured numbers of youths of the rising generation to
+lives of manly hardihood and of nautical experience and skill.
+
+The piracies with which the West India seas were for several years
+infested have been totally suppressed, but in the Mediterranean they
+have increased in a manner afflictive to other nations, and but for the
+continued presence of our squadron would probably have been distressing
+to our own.
+
+The war which has unfortunately broken out between the Republic of
+Buenos Ayres and the Brazilian Government has given rise to very great
+irregularities among the naval officers of the latter, by whom
+principles in relation to blockades and to neutral navigation have been
+brought forward to which we can not subscribe and which our own
+commanders have found it necessary to resist. From the friendly
+disposition toward the United States constantly manifested by the
+Emperor of Brazil, and the very useful and friendly commercial
+intercourse between the United States and his dominions, we have reason
+to believe that the just reparation demanded for the injuries sustained
+by several of our citizens from some of his officers will not be
+withheld. Abstracts from the recent dispatches of the commanders of our
+several squadrons are communicated with the report of the Secretary of
+the Navy to Congress.
+
+A report from the Post Master General is likewise communicated,
+presenting in a highly satisfactory manner the result of a vigorous,
+efficient, and economical administration of that Department. The
+revenue of the office, even of the year including the latter half of
+1824 and the first half of 1825, had exceeded its expenditures by a sum
+of more than $45,000. That of the succeeding year has been still more
+productive. The increase of the receipts in the year preceding the
+first of July last over that of the year before exceeds $136,000, and
+the excess of the receipts over the expenditures of the year has
+swollen from $45,000 to yearly $80,000.
+
+During the same period contracts for additional transportation of the
+mail in stages for about 260,000 miles have been made, and for 70,000
+miles annually on horse back. 714 new post offices have been
+established within the year, and the increase of revenue within the
+last three years, as well as the augmentation of the transportation by
+mail, is more than equal to the whole amount of receipts and of mail
+conveyance at the commencement of the present century, when the seat of
+the General Government was removed to this place. When we reflect that
+the objects effected by the transportation of the mail are among the
+choicest comforts and enjoyments of social life, it is pleasing to
+observe that the dissemination of them to every corner of our country
+has out-stripped in their increase even the rapid march of our
+population.
+
+By the treaties with France and Spain, respectively ceding Louisiana
+and the Floridas to the United States, provision was made for the
+security of land titles derived from the Governments of those nations.
+Some progress has been made under the authority of various acts of
+Congress in the ascertainment and establishment of those titles, but
+claims to a very large extent remain unadjusted. The public faith no
+less than the just rights of individuals and the interest of the
+community itself appears to require further provision for the speedy
+settlement of those claims, which I therefore recommend to the care and
+attention of the Legislature.
+
+In conformity with the provisions of the act of May 20th, 1825, to
+provide for erecting a penitentiary in the District of Columbia, and
+for other purposes, three commissioners were appointed to select a site
+for the erection of a penitentiary for the District, and also a site in
+the county of Alexandria for a county jail, both of which objects have
+been effected. The building of the penitentiary has been commenced, and
+is in such a degree of forwardness as to promise that it will be
+completed before the meeting of the next Congress. This consideration
+points to the expediency of maturing at the present session a system
+for the regulation and government of the penitentiary, and of defining
+a system for the regulation and government of the penitentiary, and of
+defining the class of offenses which shall be punishable by confinement
+in this edifice.
+
+In closing this communication I trust that it will not be deemed
+inappropriate to the occasion and purposes upon which we are here
+assembled to indulge a momentary retrospect, combining in a single
+glance the period of our origin as a national confederation with that
+of our present existence, at the precise interval of half a century
+from each other. Since your last meeting at this place the 50th
+anniversary of the day when our independence was declared has been
+celebrated throughout our land, and on that day, while every heart was
+bounding with joy and every voice was tuned to gratulation, amid the
+blessings of freedom and independence which the sires of a former age
+had handed down to their children, two of the principal actors in that
+solemn scene--the hand that penned the ever memorable Declaration and
+the voice that sustained it in debate--were by one summons, at the
+distance of 700 miles from each other, called before the Judge of All
+to account for their deeds done upon earth. They departed cheered by
+the benedictions of their country, to whom they left the inheritance of
+their fame and the memory of their bright example.
+
+If we turn our thoughts to the condition of their country, in the
+contrast of the first and last day of that half century, how
+resplendent and sublime is the transition from gloom to glory! Then,
+glancing through the same lapse of time, in the condition of the
+individuals we see the first day marked with the fullness and vigor of
+youth, in the pledge of their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred
+honor to the cause of freedom and of man-kind; and on the last,
+extended on the bed of death, with but sense and sensibility left to
+breathe a last aspiration to Heaven of blessing upon their country, may
+we not humbly hope that to them too it was a pledge of transition from
+gloom to glory, and that while their mortal vestments were sinking into
+the clod of the valley their emancipated spirits were ascending to the
+bosom of their God!
+
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+John Quincy Adams
+December 4, 1827
+
+Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
+
+A revolution of the seasons has nearly been completed since the
+representatives of the people and States of this Union were last
+assembled at this place to deliberate and to act upon the common
+important interests of their constituents. In that interval the never
+slumbering eye of a wise and beneficent Providence has continued its
+guardian care over the welfare of our beloved country; the blessing of
+health has continued generally to prevail throughout the land; the
+blessing of peace with our brethren of the human race has been enjoyed
+without interruption; internal quiet has left our fellow citizens in
+the full enjoyment of all their rights and in the free exercise of all
+their faculties, to pursue the impulse of their nature and the
+obligation of their duty in the improvement of their own condition; the
+productions of the soil, the exchanges of commerce, the vivifying
+labors of human industry, have combined to mingle in our cup a portion
+of enjoyment as large and liberal as the indulgence of Heaven has
+perhaps ever granted to the imperfect state of man upon earth; and as
+the purest of human felicity consists in its participation with others,
+it is no small addition to the sum of our national happiness at this
+time that peace and prosperity prevail to a degree seldom experienced
+over the whole habitable globe, presenting, though as yet with painful
+exceptions, a foretaste of that blessed period of promise when the lion
+shall lie down with the lamb and wars shall be no more.
+
+To preserve, to improve, and to perpetuate the sources and to direct in
+their most effective channels the streams which contribute to the
+public weal is the purpose for which Government was instituted. Objects
+of deep importance to the welfare of the Union are constantly recurring
+to demand the attention of the Federal Legislature, and they call with
+accumulated interest at the first meeting of the two Houses after their
+periodical renovation. To present to their consideration from time to
+time subjects in which the interests of the nation are most deeply
+involved, and for the regulation of which the legislative will is alone
+competent, is a duty prescribed by the Constitution, to the performance
+of which the first meeting of the new Congress is a period eminently
+appropriate, and which it is now my purpose to discharge.
+
+Our relations of friendship with the other nations of the earth,
+political and commercial, have been preserved unimpaired, and the
+opportunities to improve them have been cultivated with anxious and
+unremitting attention. A negotiation upon subjects of high and delicate
+interest with the Government of Great Britain has terminated in the
+adjustment of some of the questions at issue upon satisfactory terms
+and the postponement of others for future discussion and agreement.
+
+The purposes of the convention concluded at St. Petersburg on July
+12th, 1822, under the mediation of the late Emperor Alexander, have
+been carried into effect by a subsequent convention, concluded at
+London on November 13th, 1826, the ratifications of which were
+exchanged at that place on February 6th, 1827. A copy of the
+proclamations issued on March 19th, 1827, publishing this convention,
+is herewith communicated to Congress. The sum of $1,204,960, therein
+stipulated to be paid to the claimants of indemnity under the first
+article of the treaty of Ghent, has been duly received, and the
+commission instituted, conformably to the act of Congress of March 2d,
+1827, for the distribution of the indemnity of the persons entitled to
+receive it are now in session and approaching the consummation of their
+labors. This final disposal of one of the most painful topics of
+collision between the United States and Great Britain not only affords
+an occasion of gratulation to ourselves, but has had the happiest
+effect in promoting a friendly disposition and in softening asperities
+upon other objects of discussion; nor ought it to pass without the
+tribute of a frank and cordial acknowledgment of the magnanimity with
+which an honorable nation, by the reparation of their own wrongs,
+achieves a triumph more glorious than any field of blood can ever
+bestow.
+
+The conventions of March 7th, 1815, and of October 20th, 1818, will
+expire by their own limitation on October 20th, 1828. These have
+regulated the direct commercial intercourse between the United States
+and Great Britain upon terms of the most perfect reciprocity; and they
+effected a temporary compromise of the respective rights and claims to
+territory westward of the Rocky Mountains. These arrangements have been
+continued for an indefinite period of time after the expiration of the
+above mentioned conventions, leaving each party the liberty of
+terminating them by giving twelve months' notice to the other.
+
+The radical principle of all commercial intercourse between independent
+nations is the mutual interest of both parties. It is the vital spirit
+of trade itself; nor can it be reconciled to the nature of man or to
+the primary laws of human society that any traffic should long be
+willingly pursued of which all the advantages are on one side and all
+the burdens on the other. Treaties of commerce have been found by
+experience to be among the most effective instruments for promoting
+peace and harmony between nations whose interests, exclusively
+considered on either side, are brought into frequent collisions by
+competition. In framing such treaties it is the duty of each party not
+simply to urge with unyielding pertinacity that which suits its own
+interest, but to concede liberally to that which is adapted to the
+interest of the other.
+
+To accomplish this, little more is generally required than a simple
+observance of the rule of reciprocity, and were it possible for the
+states-men of one nation by stratagem and management to obtain from
+the weakness or ignorance of another an over-reaching treaty, such a
+compact would prove an incentive to war rather than a bond of peace.
+
+Our conventions with Great Britain are founded upon the principles of
+reciprocity. The commercial intercourse between the two countries is
+greater in magnitude and amount than between any two other nations on
+the globe. It is for all purposes of benefit or advantage to both as
+precious, and in all probability far more extensive, than if the
+parties were still constituent parts of one and the same nation.
+Treaties between such States, regulating the intercourse of peace
+between them and adjusting interests of such transcendent importance to
+both, which have been found in a long experience of years mutually
+advantageous, should not be lightly cancelled or discontinued. Two
+conventions for continuing in force those above mentioned have been
+concluded between the plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on
+August 6th, 1827, and will be forthwith laid before the Senate for the
+exercise of their constitutional authority concerning them.
+
+In the execution of the treaties of peace of November, 1782 and
+September, 1783, between the United States and Great Britain, and which
+terminated the war of our independence, a line of boundary was drawn as
+the demarcation of territory between the two countries, extending over
+nearly 20 degrees of latitude, and ranging over seas, lakes, and
+mountains, then very imperfectly explored and scarcely opened to the
+geographical knowledge of the age. In the progress of discovery and
+settlement by both parties since that time several questions of
+boundary between their respective territories have arisen, which have
+been found of exceedingly difficult adjustment.
+
+At the close of the last war with Great Britain four of these questions
+pressed themselves upon the consideration of the negotiators of the
+treaty of Ghent, but without the means of concluding a definitive
+arrangement concerning them. They were referred to three separate
+commissions consisting, of two commissioners, one appointed by each
+party, to examine and decide upon their respective claims. In the event
+of a disagreement between the commissioners, one appointed by each
+party, to examine and decide upon their respective claims. In the event
+of a disagreement between the commissioners it was provided that they
+should make reports to their several Governments, and that the reports
+should finally be referred to the decision of a sovereign the common
+friend of both.
+
+Of these commissions two have already terminated their sessions and
+investigations, one by entire and the other by partial agreement. The
+commissioners of the 5th article of the treaty of Ghent have finally
+disagreed, and made their conflicting reports to their own Governments.
+But from these reports a great difficulty has occurred in making up a
+question to be decided by the arbitrator. This purpose has, however,
+been effected by a 4th convention, concluded at London by the
+plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on September 29th, 1827. It
+will be submitted, together with the others, to the consideration of
+the Senate.
+
+While these questions have been pending incidents have occurred of
+conflicting pretensions and of dangerous character upon the territory
+itself in dispute between the two nations. By a common understanding
+between the Governments it was agreed that no exercise of exclusive
+jurisdiction by either party while the negotiation was pending should
+change the state of the question of right to be definitively settled.
+Such collision has, never the less, recently taken place by occurrences
+the precise character of which has not yet been ascertained. A
+communication from the governor of the State of Maine, with
+accompanying documents, and a correspondence between the Secretary of
+State and the minister of Great Britain on this subject are now
+communicated. Measures have been taken to ascertain the state of the
+facts more correctly by the employment of a special agent to visit the
+spot where the alleged outrages have occurred, the result of those
+inquiries, when received, will be transmitted to Congress.
+
+While so many of the subjects of high interest to the friendly
+relations between the two countries have been so far adjusted, it is a
+matter of regret that their views respecting the commercial intercourse
+between the United States and the British colonial possessions have not
+equally approximated to a friendly agreement.
+
+At the commencement of the last session of Congress they were informed
+of the sudden and unexpected exclusion by the British Government of
+access in vessels of the United States to all their colonial ports
+except those immediately bordering upon our own territories. In the
+amicable discussions which have succeeded the adoption of this measure
+which, as it affected harshly the interests of the United States,
+became subject of expostulation on our part, the principles upon which
+its justification has been placed have been of a diversified character.
+It has been at once ascribed to a mere recurrence to the old, long
+established principle of colonial monopoly and at the same time to a
+feeling of resentment because the offers of an act of Parliament
+opening the colonial ports upon certain conditions had not been grasped
+at with sufficient eagerness by an instantaneous conformity to them.
+
+At a subsequent period it has been intimated that the new exclusion was
+in resentment because a prior act of Parliament, of 1822, opening
+certain colonial ports, under heavy and burdensome restrictions, to
+vessels of the United States, had not been reciprocated by an admission
+of British vessels from the colonies, and their cargoes, without any
+restriction or discrimination what ever. But be the motive for the
+interdiction what it may, the British Government have manifested no
+disposition, either by negotiation or by corresponding legislative
+enactments, to recede from it, and we have been given distinctly to
+understand that neither of the bills which were under the consideration
+of Congress at their last session would have been deemed sufficient in
+their concessions to have been rewarded by any relaxation from the
+British interdict. It is one of the inconveniences inseparably
+connected with the attempt to adjust by reciprocal legislation
+interests of this nature that neither party can know what would be
+satisfactory to the other, and that after enacting a statute for the
+avowed and sincere purpose of conciliation it will generally be found
+utterly inadequate to the expectation of the other party, and will
+terminate in mutual disappointment.
+
+The session of Congress having terminated without any act upon the
+subject, a proclamation was issued on March 17, 1827, conformably to
+the provisions of the 6th section of the act of March 3rd, 1823
+declaring the fact that the trade and intercourse authorized by the
+British act of Parliament of June 24th, 1822, between the United States
+and the British enumerated colonial ports had been by the subsequent
+acts of Parliament of July 5th, 1825, and the order of council of July
+27th, 1826 prohibited. The effect of this proclamation, by the terms of
+the act under which it was issued, has been that each and every
+provision of the act concerning navigation of April 18th, 1818, and of
+the act supplementary thereto of May 15th, 1820, revived and is in full
+force.
+
+Such, then is the present condition of the trade that, useful as it is
+to both parties it can, with a single momentary exception, be carried
+on directly by the vessels of neither. That exception itself is found
+in a proclamation of the governor of the island of St. Christopher and
+of the Virgin Islands, inviting for three months from August 28th, 1827
+the importation of the articles of the produce of the United States
+which constitute their export portion of this trade in the vessels of
+all nations.
+
+That period having already expired, the state of mutual interdiction
+has again taken place. The British Government have not only declined
+negotiation upon this subject, but by the principle they have assumed
+with reference to it have precluded even the means of negotiation. It
+becomes not the self respect of the United States either to solicit
+gratuitous favors or to accept as the grant of a favor that for which
+an ample equivalent is exacted. It remains to be determined by the
+respective Governments whether the trade shall be opened by acts of
+reciprocal legislation. It is, in the mean time, satisfactory to know
+that apart from the inconvenience resulting from a disturbance of the
+usual channels of trade no loss has been sustained by the commerce, the
+navigation, or the revenue of the United States, and none of magnitude
+is to be apprehended from this existing state of mutual interdict.
+
+With the other maritime and commercial nations of Europe our
+intercourse continues with little variation. Since the cessation by the
+convention of June 24th, 1822, of all discriminating duties upon the
+vessels of the United States and of France in either country our trade
+with that nation has increased and is increasing. A disposition on the
+part of France has been manifested to renew that negotiation, and in
+acceding to the proposal we have expressed the wish that it might be
+extended to other subjects upon which a good understanding between the
+parties would be beneficial to the interests of both.
+
+The origin of the political relations between the United States and
+France is coeval with the first years of our independence. The memory
+of it is interwoven with that of our arduous struggle for national
+existence. Weakened as it has occasionally been since that time, it can
+by us never be forgotten, and we should hail with exultation the moment
+which should indicate a recollection equally friendly in spirit on the
+part of France.
+
+A fresh effort has recently been made by the minister of the United
+States residing at Paris to obtain a consideration of the just claims
+of citizens of the United States to the reparation of wrongs long since
+committed, many of them frankly acknowledged and all of them entitled
+upon every principle of justice to a candid examination. The proposal
+last made to the French Government has been to refer the subject which
+has formed an obstacle to this consideration to the determination of a
+sovereign the common friend of both. To this offer no definitive answer
+has yet been received, but the gallant and honorable spirit which has
+at all times been the pride and glory of France will not ultimately
+permit the demands of innocent sufferers to be extinguished in the mere
+consciousness of the power to reject them.
+
+A new treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce has been concluded with
+the Kingdom of Sweden, which will be submitted to the Senate for their
+advice with regard to its ratification. At a more recent date a
+minister plenipotentiary from the Hanseatic Republics of Hamburg,
+Lubeck, and Bremen has been received, charged with a special mission
+for the negotiation of a treaty of amity and commerce between that
+ancient and renowned league and the United States. This negotiation has
+accordingly been commenced, and is now in progress, the result of which
+will, if successful, be also submitted to the Senate for their
+consideration.
+
+Since the accession of the Emperor Nicholas to the imperial throne of
+all the Russias the friendly dispositions toward the United States so
+constantly manifested by his predecessor have continued unabated, and
+have been recently testified by the appointment of a minister
+plenipotentiary to reside at this place. From the interest taken by
+this Sovereign in behalf of the suffering Greeks and from the spirit
+with which others of the great European powers are cooperating with him
+the friends of freedom and of humanity may indulge the hope that they
+will obtain relief from that most unequal of conflicts which they have
+so long and so gallantly sustained; that they will enjoy the blessing
+of self government, which by their sufferings in the cause of liberty
+they have richly earned, and that their independence will be secured by
+those liberal institutions of which their country furnished the
+earliest examples in the history of man-kind, and which have
+consecrated to immortal remembrance the very soil for which they are
+now again profusely pouring forth their blood. The sympathies which the
+people and Government of the United States have so warmly indulged with
+their cause have been acknowledged by their Government in a letter of
+thanks, which I have received from their illustrious President, a
+translation of which is now communicated to Congress, the
+representatives of that nation to whom this tribute of gratitude was
+intended to be paid, and to whom it was justly due.
+
+In the American hemisphere the cause of freedom and independence has
+continued to prevail, and if signalized by none of those splendid
+triumphs which had crowned with glory some of the preceding years it
+has only been from the banishment of all external force against which
+the struggle had been maintained. The shout of victory has been
+superseded by the expulsion of the enemy over whom it could have been
+achieved.
+
+Our friendly wishes and cordial good will, which have constantly
+followed the southern nations of America in all the vicissitudes of
+their war of independence, are succeeded by a solicitude equally ardent
+and cordial that by the wisdom and purity of their institutions they
+may secure to themselves the choicest blessings of social order and the
+best rewards of virtuous liberty. Disclaiming alike all right and all
+intention of interfering in those concerns which it is the prerogative
+of their independence to regulate as to them shall seem fit, we hail
+with joy every indication of their prosperity, of their harmony, of
+their persevering and inflexible homage to those principles of freedom
+and of equal rights which are alone suited to the genius and temper of
+the American nations.
+
+It has been, therefore, with some concern that we have observed
+indications of intestine divisions in some of the Republics of the
+south, and appearances of less union with one another than we believe
+to be the interest of all. Among the results of this state of things
+has been that the treaties concluded at Panama do not appear to have
+been ratified by the contracting parties, and that the meeting of the
+congress at Tacubaya has been indefinitely postponed. In accepting the
+invitations to be represented at this congress, while a manifestation
+was intended on the part of the United States of the most friendly
+disposition toward the southern Republics by whom it had been proposed,
+it was hoped that it would furnish an opportunity for bringing all the
+nations of this hemisphere to the common acknowledgment and adoption of
+the principles in the regulation of their internal relations which
+would have secured a lasting peace and harmony between them and have
+promoted the cause of mutual benevolence throughout the globe. But as
+obstacles appear to have arisen to the reassembling of the congress,
+one of the two ministers commissioned on the part of the United States
+has returned to the bosom of his country, while the minister charged
+with the ordinary mission to Mexico remains authorized to attend the
+conferences of the congress when ever they may be resumed.
+
+A hope was for a short time entertained that a treaty of peace actually
+signed between the Government of Buenos Ayres and of Brazil would
+supersede all further occasion for those collisions between belligerent
+pretensions and neutral rights which are so commonly the result of
+maritime war, and which have unfortunately disturbed the harmony of the
+relations between the United States and the Brazilian Governments. At
+their last session Congress were informed that some of the naval
+officers of that Empire had advanced and practiced upon principles in
+relation to blockades and to neutral navigation which we could not
+sanction, and which our commanders found it necessary to resist. It
+appears that they have not been sustained by the Government of Brazil
+itself. Some of the vessels captured under the assumed authority of
+these erroneous principles have been restored, and we trust that our
+just expectations will be realized that adequate indemnity will be made
+to all the citizens of the United States who have suffered by the
+unwarranted captures which the Brazilian tribunals themselves have
+pronounced unlawful.
+
+In the diplomatic discussions at Rio de Janeiro of these wrongs
+sustained by citizens of the United States and of others which seemed
+as if emanating immediately from that Government itself the charge
+d'affaires of the United States, under an impression that his
+representations in behalf of the rights and interests of his country-
+men were totally disregarded and useless, deemed it his duty, without
+waiting for instructions, to terminate his official functions, to
+demand his pass-ports, and return to the United States. This movement,
+dictated by an honest zeal for the honor and interests of his country--
+motives which operated exclusively on the mind of the officer who
+resorted to it--has not been disapproved by me.
+
+The Brazilian Government, however, complained of it as a measure for
+which no adequate intentional cause had been given by them, and upon an
+explicit assurance through their charge d'affaires residing here that a
+successor to the late representative of the United States near that
+Government, the appointment of whom they desired, should be received
+and treated with the respect due to his character, and that indemnity
+should be promptly made for all injuries inflicted on citizens of the
+United States or their property contrary to the laws of nations, a
+temporary commission as charge d'affaires to that country has been
+issued, which it is hopes will entirely restore the ordinary diplomatic
+intercourse between the two Governments and the friendly relations
+between their respective nations.
+
+Turning from the momentous concerns of our Union in its intercourse
+with foreign nations to those of the deepest interest in the
+administration of our internal affairs, we find the revenues of the
+present year corresponding as nearly as might be expected with the
+anticipations of the last, and presenting an aspect still more
+favorable in the promise of the next.
+
+The balance in the Treasury on January 1st, 1827 was $6,358,686.18. The
+receipts from that day to September 30th, 1827, as near as the returns
+of them yet received can show, amount to $16,886,581.32. The receipts
+of the present quarter, estimated at $4,515,000, added to the above
+form an aggregate of $21,400,000 of receipts.
+
+The expenditures of the year may perhaps amount to $22,300,000
+presenting a small excess over the receipts. But of these $22,000,000,
+upward of $6,000,000 have been applied to the discharge of the
+principal of the public debt, the whole amount of which, approaching
+$74,000,000 on January 1st, 1827, will on January 1st, 1828 fall short
+of $67,500,000. The balance in the Treasury on January 1st, 1828 it is
+expected will exceed $5,450,000, a sum exceeding that of January 1st,
+1825, though falling short of that exhibited on January 1st, 1827.
+
+It was foreseen that the revenue of the present year 1827 would not
+equal that of the last, which had itself been less than that of the
+next preceding year. But the hope has been realized which was
+entertained, that these deficiencies would in no wise interrupt the
+steady operation of the discharge of the public debt by the annual
+$10,000,000 devoted to that object by the act of March 3d, 1817.
+
+The amount of duties secured on merchandise imported from the
+commencement of the year until September 30th, 1827 is $21,226,000, and
+the probably amount of that which will be secured during the remainder
+of the year is $5,774,000, forming a sum total of $27,000,000. With the
+allowances for draw-backs and contingent deficiencies which may occur,
+though not specifically foreseen, we may safely estimate the receipts
+of the ensuing year at $22,300,000--a revenue for the next equal to the
+expenditure of the present year.
+
+The deep solicitude felt by our citizens of all classes throughout the
+Union for the total discharge of the public debt will apologize for the
+earnestness with which I deem it my duty to urge this topic upon the
+consideration of Congress--of recommending to them again the observance
+of the strictest economy in the application of the public funds. The
+depression upon the receipts of the revenue which had commenced with
+the year 1826 continued with increased severity during the two first
+quarters of the present year.
+
+The returning tide began to flow with the third quarter, and, so far as
+we can judge from experience, may be expected to continue through the
+course of the ensuing year. In the mean time an alleviation from the
+burden of the public debt will in the three years have been effected to
+the amount of nearly $16,000,000, and the charge of annual interest
+will have been reduced upward of $1,000,000. But among the maxims of
+political economy which the stewards of the public moneys should never
+suffer without urgent necessity to be transcended is that of keeping
+the expenditures of the year within the limits of its receipts.
+
+The appropriations of the two last years, including the yearly
+$10,000,000 of the sinking fund, have each equaled the promised revenue
+of the ensuing year. While we foresee with confidence that the public
+coffers will be replenished from the receipts as fast as they will be
+drained by the expenditures, equal in amount to those of the current
+year, it should not be forgotten that they could ill suffer the
+exhaustion of larger disbursements.
+
+The condition of the Army and of all the branches of the public service
+under the superintendence of the Secretary of War will be seen by the
+report from that officer and the documents with which it is
+accompanied.
+
+During the last summer a detachment of the Army has been usefully and
+successfully called to perform their appropriate duties. At the moment
+when the commissioners appointed for carrying into execution certain
+provisions of the treaty of August 19th, 1825, with various tribes of
+the North Western Indians were about to arrive at the appointed place
+of meeting the unprovoked murder of several citizens and other acts of
+unequivocal hostility committed by a party of the Winnebago tribe, one
+of those associated in the treaty, followed by indications of a
+menacing character among other tribes of the same region, rendered
+necessary an immediate display of the defensive and protective force of
+the Union in that quarter.
+
+It was accordingly exhibited by the immediate and concerted movements
+of the governors of the State of Illinois and of the Territory of
+Michigan, and competent levies of militia, under their authority, with
+a corps of 700 men of United States troops, under the command of
+General Atkinson, who, at the call of Governor Cass, immediately
+repaired to the scene of danger from their station at St. Louis. Their
+presence dispelled the alarms of our fellow citizens on those
+disorders, and overawed the hostile purposes of the Indians. The
+perpetrators of the murders were surrendered to the authority and
+operation of our laws, and every appearance of purposed hostility from
+those Indian tribes has subsided.
+
+Although the present organization of the Army and the administration of
+its various branches of service are, upon the whole, satisfactory, they
+are yet susceptible of much improvement in particulars, some of which
+have been heretofore submitted to the consideration of Congress, and
+others are now first presented in the report of the Secretary of War.
+
+The expediency of providing for additional numbers of officers in the
+two corps of engineers will in some degree depend upon the number and
+extent of the objects of national importance upon which Congress may
+think it proper that surveys should be made conformably to the act of
+April 30th, 1824. Of the surveys which before the last session of
+Congress had been made under the authority of that act, reports were
+made--Of the Board of Internal Improvement, on the Chesapeake and Ohio
+Canal. On the continuation of the national road from Cumberland to the
+tide waters within the District of Columbia. On the continuation of the
+national road from Canton to Zanesville. On the location of the
+national road from Zanesville to Columbus. On the continuation of the
+same to the seat of government in Missouri. On a post road from
+Baltimore to Philadelphia. Of a survey of Kennebec River (in part). On
+a national road from Washington to Buffalo. On the survey of Saugatuck
+Harbor and River. On a canal from Lake Pont Chartrain to the
+Mississippi River. On surveys at Edgartown, Newburyport, and Hyannis
+Harbor. On survey of La Plaisance Bay, in the Territory of Michigan.
+And reports are now prepared and will be submitted to Congress--On
+surveys of the peninsula of Florida, to ascertain the practicability of
+a canal to connect the waters of the Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico
+across that peninsula; and also of the country between the bays of
+Mobile and of Pensacola, with the view of connecting them together by a
+canal. On surveys of a route for a canal to connect the waters of James
+and Great Kenhawa rivers. On the survey of the Swash, in Pamlico Sound,
+and that of Cape Fear, below the town of Wilmington, in North Carolina.
+On the survey of the Muscle Shoals, in the Tennessee River, and for a
+route for a contemplated communication between the Hiwassee and Coosa
+rivers, in the State of Alabama. Other reports of surveys upon objects
+pointed out by the several acts of Congress of the last and preceding
+sessions are in the progress of preparation, and most of them may be
+completed before the close of this session. All the officers of both
+corps of engineers, with several other persons duly qualified, have
+been constantly employed upon these services from the passage of the
+act of April 30th, 1824, to this time.
+
+Were no other advantage to accrue to the country from their labors than
+the fund of topographical knowledge which they have collected and
+communicated, that alone would have been a profit to the Union more
+than adequate to all the expenditures which have been devoted to the
+object; but the appropriations for the repair and continuation of the
+Cumberland road, for the construction of various other roads, for the
+removal of obstructions from the rivers and harbors, for the erection
+of light houses, beacons, piers, and buoys, and for the completion of
+canals undertaken by individual associations, but needing the
+assistance of means and resources more comprehensive than individual
+enterprise can command, may be considered rather as treasures laid up
+from the contributions of the present age for the benefit of posterity
+than as unrequited applications of the accruing revenues of the nation.
+
+To such objects of permanent improvement to the condition of the
+country, of real addition to the wealth as well as to the comfort of
+the people by whose authority and resources they have been effected,
+from $3,000,000 to $4,000,000 of the annual income of the nation have,
+by laws enacted at the three most recent sessions of Congress, been
+applied, without intrenching upon the necessities of the Treasury,
+without adding a dollar to the taxes or debts of the community, without
+suspending even the steady and regular discharge of the debts
+contracted in former days, which within the same three years have been
+diminished by the amount of nearly $16,000,000.
+
+The same observations are in a great degree applicable to the
+appropriations made for fortifications upon the coasts and harbors of
+the United States, for the maintenance of the Military Academy at West
+Point, and for the various objects under the superintendence of the
+Department of the Navy. The report from the Secretary of the Navy and
+those from the subordinate branches of both the military departments
+exhibit to Congress in minute detail the present condition of the
+public establishments dependent upon them, the execution of the acts of
+Congress relating to them, and the views of the officers engaged in the
+several branches of the service concerning the improvements which may
+tend to their perfection.
+
+The fortification of the coasts and the gradual increase and
+improvement of the Navy are parts of a great system of national defense
+which has been upward of ten years in progress, and which for a series
+of years to come will continue to claim the constant and persevering
+protection and superintendence of the legislative authority. Among the
+measures which have emanated from these principles the act of the last
+session of Congress for the gradual improvement of the Navy holds a
+conspicuous place. The collection of timber for the future construction
+of vessels of war, the preservation and reproduction of the species of
+timber peculiarly adapted to that purpose, the construction of dry
+docks for the use of the Navy, the erection of a marine railway for the
+repair of the public ships, and the improvement of the navy yards for
+the preservation of the public property deposited in them have all
+received from the Executive the attention required by that act, and
+will continue to receive it, steadily proceeding toward the execution
+of all its purposes.
+
+The establishment of a naval academy, furnishing the means of theoretic
+instruction to the youths who devote their lives to the service of
+their country upon the ocean, still solicits the sanction of the
+Legislature. Practical seamanship and the art of navigation may be
+acquired on the cruises of the squadrons which from time to time are
+dispatched to distant seas, but a competent knowledge even of the art
+of ship building, the higher mathematics, and astronomy; the literature
+which can place our officers on a level of polished education with the
+officers of other maritime nations; the knowledge of the laws,
+municipal and national, which in their intercourse with foreign states
+and their governments are continually called into operation, and, above
+all, that acquaintance with the principles of honor and justice, with
+the higher obligations of morals and of general laws, human and divine,
+which constitutes the great distinction between the warrior-patriot and
+the licensed robber and pirate--these can be systematically taught and
+eminently acquired only in a permanent school, stationed upon the shore
+and provided with the teachers, the instruments, and the books
+conversant with and adapted to the communication of the principles of
+these respective sciences to the youthful and inquiring mind.
+
+The report from the Post Master General exhibits the condition of that
+Department as highly satisfactory for the present and still more
+promising for the future. Its receipts for the year ending July 1st,
+1827 amounted to $1,473,551, and exceeded its expenditures by upward of
+$100,000. It can not be an over sanguine estimate to predict that in
+less than ten years, of which half have elapsed, the receipts will have
+been more than doubled.
+
+In the mean time a reduced expenditure upon established routes has kept
+pace with increased facilities of public accommodation and additional
+services have been obtained at reduced rates of compensation. Within
+the last year the transportation of the mail in stages has been greatly
+augmented. The number of post offices has been increased to 7,000, and
+it may be anticipated that while the facilities of intercourse between
+fellow citizens in person or by correspondence will soon be carried to
+the door of every villager in the Union, a yearly surplus of revenue
+will accrue which may be applied as the wisdom of Congress under the
+exercise of their constitutional powers may devise for the further
+establishment and improvement of the public roads, or by adding still
+further to the facilities in the transportation of the mails. Of the
+indications of the prosperous condition of our country, none can be
+more pleasing than those presented by the multiplying relations of
+personal and intimate intercourse between the citizens of the Union
+dwelling at the remotest distances from each other.
+
+Among the subjects which have heretofore occupied the earnest
+solicitude and attention of Congress is the management and disposal of
+that portion of the property of the nation which consists of the public
+lands. The acquisition of them, made at the expense of the whole Union,
+not only in treasury but in blood, marks a right of property in them
+equally extensive. By the report and statements from the General Land
+Office now communicated it appears that under the present Government of
+the United States a sum little short of $33,000,000 has been paid from
+the common Treasury for that portion of this property which has been
+purchased from France and Spain, and for the extinction of the
+aboriginal titles. The amount of lands acquired is near 260,000,000
+acres, of which on January 1st, 1826, about 139,000,000 acres had been
+surveyed, and little more than 19,000,000 acres had been sold. The
+amount paid into the Treasury by the purchasers of the public lands
+sold is not yet equal to the sums paid for the whole, but leaves a
+small balance to be refunded. The proceeds of the sales of the lands
+have long been pledged to the creditors of the nation, a pledge from
+which we have reason to hope that they will in a very few years be
+redeemed.
+
+The system upon which this great national interest has been managed was
+the result of long, anxious, and persevering deliberation. Matured and
+modified by the progress of our population and the lessons of
+experience, it has been hitherto eminently successful. More than nine
+tenths of the lands still remain the common property of the Union, the
+appropriation and disposal of which are sacred trusts in the hands of
+Congress.
+
+Of the lands sold, a considerable part were conveyed under extended
+credits, which in the vicissitudes and fluctuations in the value of
+lands and of their produce became oppressively burdensome to the
+purchasers. It can never be the interest or the policy of the nation to
+wring from its own citizens the reasonable profits of their industry
+and enterprise by holding them to the rigorous import of disastrous
+engagements. In March, 1821, a debt of $22,000,000, due by purchasers
+of the public lands, had accumulated, which they were unable to pay. An
+act of Congress of March 2nd, 1821, came to their relief, and has been
+succeeded by others, the latest being the act of May 4th, 1826, the
+indulgent provisions of which expired on July 4th, 1827. The effect of
+these laws has been to reduce the debt from the purchasers to a
+remaining balance of about $4,300,000 due, more than three fifths of
+which are for lands within the State of Alabama. I recommend to
+Congress the revival and continuance for a further term of the
+beneficent accommodations to the public debtors of that statute, and
+submit to their consideration, in the same spirit of equity, the
+remission, under proper discriminations, of the forfeitures of partial
+payments on account of purchases of the public lands, so far as to
+allow of their application to other payments.
+
+There are various other subjects of deep interest to the whole Union
+which have heretofore been recommended to the consideration of
+Congress, as well by my predecessors as, under the impression of the
+duties devolving upon me, by myself. Among these are the debt, rather
+of justice than gratitude, to the surviving warriors of the
+Revolutionary war; the extension of the judicial administration of the
+Federal Government to those extensive since the organization of the
+present judiciary establishment, now constitute at least one third of
+its territory, power, and population; the formation of a more effective
+and uniform system for the government of the militia, and the
+amelioration in some form or modification of the diversified and often
+oppressive codes relating to insolvency. Amidst the multiplicity of
+topics of great national concernment which may recommend themselves to
+the calm and patriotic deliberations of the Legislature, it may suffice
+to say that on these and all other measures which may receive their
+sanction my hearty cooperation will be given, conformably to the duties
+enjoined upon me and under the sense of all the obligations prescribed
+by the Constitution.
+
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+John Quincy Adams
+December 2, 1828
+
+Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
+
+If the enjoyment in profusion of the bounties of Providence forms a
+suitable subject of mutual gratulation and grateful acknowledgment, we
+are admonished at this return of the season when the representatives of
+the nation are assembled to deliberate upon their concerns to offer up
+the tribute of fervent and grateful hearts for the never failing
+mercies of Him who ruleth over all. He has again favored us with
+healthful seasons and abundant harvests; He has sustained us in peace
+with foreign countries and in tranquillity within our borders; He has
+preserved us in the quiet and undisturbed possession of civil and
+religious liberty; He has crowned the year with His goodness, imposing
+on us no other condition than of improving for our own happiness the
+blessings bestowed by His hands, and, in the fruition of all His
+favors, of devoting his faculties with which we have been endowed by
+Him to His glory and to our own temporal and eternal welfare.
+
+In the relations of our Federal Union with our brethren of the human
+race the changes which have occurred since the close of your last
+session have generally tended to the preservation of peace and to the
+cultivation of harmony. Before your last separation a war had unhappily
+been kindled between the Empire of Russia, one of those with which our
+intercourse has been no other than a constant exchange of good offices,
+and that of the Ottoman Porte, a nation from which geographical
+distance, religious opinions and maxims of government on their part
+little suited to the formation of those bonds of mutual benevolence
+which result from the benefits of commerce had department us in a
+state, perhaps too much prolonged, of coldness and alienation.
+
+The extensive, fertile, and populous dominions of the Sultan belong
+rather to the Asiatic than the European division of the human family.
+They enter but partially into the system of Europe, nor have their wars
+with Russia and Austria, the European States upon which they border,
+for more than a century past disturbed the pacific relations of those
+States with the other great powers of Europe. Neither France nor
+Prussia nor Great Britain has ever taken part in them, nor is it to be
+expected that they will at this time. The declaration of war by Russia
+has received the approbation or acquiescence of her allies, and we may
+indulge the hope that its progress and termination will be signalized
+by the moderation and forbearance no less than by the energy of the
+Emperor Nicholas, and that it will afford the opportunity for such
+collateral agency in behalf of the suffering Greeks as will secure to
+them ultimately the triumph of humanity and of freedom.
+
+The state of our particular relations with France has scarcely varied
+in the course of the present year. The commercial intercourse between
+the two countries has continued to increase for the mutual benefit of
+both. The claims of indemnity to numbers of our fellow citizens for
+depredations upon their property, heretofore committed during the
+revolutionary governments, remain unadjusted, and still form the
+subject of earnest representation and remonstrance. Recent advices from
+the minister of the United States at Paris encourage the expectation
+that the appeal to the justice of the French Government will ere long
+receive a favorable consideration.
+
+The last friendly expedient has been resorted to for the decision of
+the controversy with Great Britain relating to the north-eastern
+boundary of the United States. By an agreement with the British
+Government, carrying into effect the provisions of the 5th article of
+the treaty of Ghent, and the convention of September 29th, 1827, His
+Majesty the King of the Netherlands has by common consent been selected
+as the umpire between the parties. The proposal to him to accept the
+designation for the performance of this friendly office will be made at
+an early day, and the United States, relying upon the justice of their
+cause, will cheerfully commit the arbitrament of it to a prince equally
+distinguished for the independence of his spirit, his indefatigable
+assiduity to the duties of his station, and his inflexible personal
+probity.
+
+Our commercial relations with Great Britain will deserve the serious
+consideration of Congress and the exercise of a conciliatory and
+forbearing spirit in the policy of both Governments. The state of them
+has been materially changed by the act of Congress, passed at their
+last session, in alteration of several acts imposing duties on imports,
+and by acts of more recent date of the British Parliament. The effect
+of the interdiction of direct trade, commenced by Great Britain and
+reciprocated by the United States, has been, as was to be foreseen,
+only to substitute different channels for an exchange of commodities
+indispensable to the colonies and profitable to a numerous class of our
+fellow citizens. The exports, the revenue, the navigation of the United
+States have suffered no diminution by our exclusion from direct access
+to the British colonies. The colonies pay more dearly for the
+necessaries of life which their Government burdens with the charges of
+double voyages, freight, insurance, and commission, and the profits of
+our exports are somewhat impaired and more injuriously transferred from
+one portion of our citizens to another.
+
+The resumption of this old and otherwise exploded system of colonial
+exclusion has not secured to the shipping interest of Great Britain the
+relief which, at the expense of the distant colonies and of the United
+States, it was expected to afford. Other measures have been resorted to
+more pointedly bearing upon the navigation of the United States, and
+more pointedly bearing upon the navigation of the United States, and
+which, unless modified by the construction given to the recent acts of
+Parliament, will be manifestly incompatible with the positive
+stipulations of the commercial convention existing between the two
+countries. That convention, however, may be terminated with 12 months'
+notice, at the option of either party.
+
+A treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce between the United States
+and His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia,
+has been prepared for signature by the Secretary of State and by the
+Baron de Lederer, intrusted with full powers of the Austrian
+Government. Independently of the new and friendly relations which may
+be thus commenced with one of the most eminent and powerful nations of
+the earth, the occasion has been taken in it, as in other recent
+treaties concluded by the United States, to extend those principles of
+liberal intercourse and of fair reciprocity which intertwine with the
+exchanges of commerce the principles of justice and the feelings of
+mutual benevolence.
+
+This system, first proclaimed to the world in the first commercial
+treaty ever concluded by the United States--that of February 6th, 1778,
+with France--has been invariably the cherished policy of our Union. It
+is by treaties of commerce alone that it can be made ultimately to
+prevail as the established system of all civilized nations. With this
+principle our fathers extended the hand of friendship to every nation
+of the globe, and to this policy our country has ever since adhered.
+What ever of regulation in our laws has ever been adopted unfavorable
+to the interest of any foreign nation has been essentially defensive
+and counteracting to similar regulations of theirs operating against
+us.
+
+Immediately after the close of the War of Independence commissioners
+were appointed by the Congress of the Confederation authorized to
+conclude treaties with every nation of Europe disposed to adopt them.
+Before the wars of the French Revolution such treaties had been
+consummated with the United Netherlands, Sweden, and Prussia. During
+those wars treaties with Great Britain and Spain had been effected, and
+those with Prussia and France renewed. In all these some concessions to
+the liberal principles of intercourse proposed by the United States had
+been obtained; but as in all the negotiations they came occasionally in
+collision with previous internal regulations or exclusive and excluding
+compacts of monopoly with which the other parties had been trammeled,
+the advances made in them toward the freedom of trade were partial and
+imperfect. Colonial establishments, chartered companies, and ship
+building influence pervaded and encumbered the legislation of all the
+great commercial states; and the United States, in offering free trade
+and equal privilege to all, were compelled to acquiesce in many
+exceptions with each of the parties to their treaties, accommodated to
+their existing laws and anterior agreements.
+
+The colonial system by which this whole hemisphere was bound has fallen
+into ruins, totally abolished by revolutions converting colonies into
+independent nations throughout the two American continents, excepting a
+portion of territory chiefly at the northern extremity of our own, and
+confined to the remnants of dominion retained by Great Britain over the
+insular archipelago, geographically the appendages of our part of the
+globe. With all the rest we have free trade, even with the insular
+colonies of all the European nations, except Great Britain. Her
+Government also had manifested approaches to the adoption of a free and
+liberal intercourse between her colonies and other nations, though by a
+sudden and scarcely explained revulsion the spirit of exclusion has
+been revived for operation upon the United States alone.
+
+The conclusion of our last treaty of peace with Great Britain was
+shortly afterwards followed by a commercial convention, placing the
+direct intercourse between the two countries upon a footing of more
+equal reciprocity than had ever before been admitted. The same
+principle has since been much further extended by treaties with France,
+Sweden, Denmark, the Hanseatic cities, Prussia, in Europe, and with the
+Republics of Colombia and of Central America, in this hemisphere. The
+mutual abolition of discriminating duties and charges upon the
+navigation and commercial intercourse between the parties is the
+general maxim which characterizes them all. There is reason to expect
+that it will at no distant period be adopted by other nations, both of
+Europe and America, and to hope that by its universal prevalence one of
+the fruitful sources of wars of commercial competition will be
+extinguished.
+
+Among the nations upon whose Governments many of our fellow citizens
+have had long-pending claims of indemnity for depredations upon their
+property during a period when the rights of neutral commerce were
+disregarded was that of Denmark. They were soon after the events
+occurred the subject of a special mission from the United States, at
+the close of which the assurance was given by His Danish Majesty that
+at a period of more tranquillity and of less distress they would be
+considered, examined, and decided upon in a spirit of determined
+purpose for the dispensation of justice. I have much pleasure in
+informing Congress that the fulfillment of this honorable promise is
+now in progress; that a small portion of the claims has already been
+settled to the satisfaction of the claimants, and that we have reason
+to hope that the remainder will shortly be placed in a train of
+equitable adjustment. This result has always been confidently expected,
+from the character of personal integrity and of benevolence which the
+Sovereign of the Danish dominions has through every vicissitude of
+fortune maintained.
+
+The general aspect of the affairs of our neighboring American nations
+of the south has been rather of approaching than of settled
+tranquillity. Internal disturbances have been more frequent among them
+than their common friends would have desired. Our intercourse with all
+has continued to be that of friendship and of mutual good will.
+Treaties of commerce and of boundaries with the United Mexican States
+have been negotiated, but, from various successive obstacles, not yet
+brought to a final conclusion.
+
+The civil war which unfortunately still prevails in the Republics of
+Central America has been unpropitious to the cultivation of our
+commercial relations with them; and the dissensions and revolutionary
+changes in the Republics of Colombia and of Peru have been seen with
+cordial regret by us, who would gladly contribute to the happiness of
+both. It is with great satisfaction, however, that we have witnessed
+the recent conclusion of a peace between the Governments of Buenos
+Ayres and of Brazil, and it is equally gratifying to observe that
+indemnity has been obtained for some of the injuries which our fellow
+citizens had sustained in the latter of those countries. The rest are
+in a train of negotiation, which we hope may terminate to mutual
+satisfaction, and that it may be succeeded by a treaty of commerce and
+navigation, upon liberal principles, propitious to a great and growing
+commerce, already important to the interests of our country.
+
+The condition and prospects of the revenue are more favorable than our
+most sanguine expectations had anticipated. The balance in the Treasury
+on January 1st, 1828, exclusive of the moneys received under the
+convention of November 13th, 1826, with Great Britain, was
+$5,861,972.83. The receipts into the Treasury from January 1st, 1828 to
+September 30th, 1828, so far as they have been ascertained to form the
+basis of an estimate, amount to $18,633,580.27, which, with the
+receipts of the present quarter, estimated at $5,461,283.40, form an
+aggregate of receipts during the year of $24,094,863.67. The
+expenditures of the year may probably amount to $25,637,111.63, and
+leave in the Treasury on January 1st, 1829 the sum of $5,125,638.14.
+
+The receipts of the present year have amounted to near $2,000,000 more
+than was anticipated at the commencement of the last session of
+Congress.
+
+The amount of duties secured on importations from the first of January
+to the 30th of September was about $22,997,000, and that of the
+estimated accruing revenue is $5,000,000, forming an aggregate for the
+year of near $28,000,000. This is $1,000,000 more than the estimate
+last December for the accruing revenue of the present year, which, with
+allowances for draw-backs and contingent deficiencies, was expected to
+produce an actual revenue of $22,300,000. Had these only been realized
+the expenditures of the year would have been also proportionally
+reduced, for of these $24,000,000 received upward of $9,000,000 have
+been applied to the extinction of public debt, bearing an interest of
+6% a year, and of course reducing the burden of interest annually
+payable in future by the amount of more than $500,000. The payments on
+account of interest during the current year exceed $3,000,000,
+presenting an aggregate of more than $12,000,000 applied during the
+year to the discharge of the public debt, the whole of which remaining
+due on January 1st, 1829 will amount only to $58,362,135.78.
+
+That the revenue of the ensuing year will not fall short of that
+received in the one now expiring there are indications which can
+scarcely prove deceptive. In our country an uniform experience of 40
+years has shown that what ever the tariff of duties upon articles
+imported from abroad has been, the amount of importations has always
+borne an average value nearly approaching to that of the exports,
+though occasionally differing in the balance, some times being more and
+some times less. It is, indeed, a general law of prosperous commerce
+that the real value of exports should by a small, and only a small,
+balance exceed that of imports, that balance being a permanent addition
+to the wealth of the nation.
+
+The extent of the prosperous commerce of the nation must be regulated
+by the amount of its exports, and an important addition to the value of
+these will draw after it a corresponding increase of importations. It
+has happened in the vicissitudes of the seasons that the harvests of
+all Europe have in the late summer and autumn fallen short of their
+usual average. A relaxation of the interdict upon the importation of
+grain and flour from abroad has ensued, a propitious market has been
+opened to the granaries of our country, and a new prospect of reward
+presented to the labors of the husband-man, which for several years has
+been denied. This accession to the profits of agriculture in the middle
+and western portions of our Union is accidental and temporary. It may
+continue only for a single year. It may be, as has been often
+experienced in the revolutions of time, but the first of several scanty
+harvests in succession. We may consider it certain that for the
+approaching year it has added an item of large amount to the value of
+our exports and that it will produce a corresponding increase of
+importations. It may therefore confidently be foreseen that the revenue
+of 1829 will equal and probably exceed that of 1828, and will afford
+the means of extinguishing $10,000,000 more of the principal of the
+public debt.
+
+This new element of prosperity to that part of our agricultural
+industry which is occupied in producing the first article of human
+subsistence is of the most cheering character to the feelings of
+patriotism. Proceeding from a cause which humanity will view with
+concern, the sufferings of scarcity in distant lands, it yields a
+consolatory reflection that this scarcity is in no respect attributable
+to us; that it comes from the dispensation of Him who ordains all in
+wisdom and goodness, and who permits evil itself only as an instrument
+of good; that, far from contributing to this scarcity, our agency will
+be applied only to the alleviation of its severity, and that in pouring
+forth from the abundance of our own garners the supplies which will
+partially restore plenty to those who are in need we shall ourselves
+reduce our stores and add to the price of our own bread, so as in some
+degree to participate in the wants which it will be the good fortune of
+our country to relieve.
+
+The great interests of an agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing
+nation are so linked in union together that no permanent cause of
+prosperity to one of them can operate without extending its influence
+to the others. All these interests are alike under the protecting power
+of the legislative authority, and the duties of the representative
+bodies are to conciliate them in harmony together.
+
+So far as the object of taxation is to raise a revenue for discharging
+the debts and defraying the expenses of the community, its operation
+should be adapted as much as possible to suit the burden with equal
+hand upon all in proportion with their ability of bearing it without
+oppression. But the legislation of one nation is some times
+intentionally made to bear heavily upon the interests of another. That
+legislation, adapted, as it is meant to be, to the special interests of
+its own people, will often press most unequally upon the several
+component interests of its neighbors.
+
+Thus the legislation of Great Britain, when, as has recently been
+avowed, adapted to the depression of a rival nation, will naturally
+abound with regulations to interdict upon the productions of the soil
+or industry of the other which come in competition with its own, and
+will present encouragement, perhaps even bounty, to the raw material of
+the other State which it can not produce itself, and which is essential
+for the use of its manufactures, competitors in the markets of the
+world with those of its commercial rival.
+
+Such is the state of commercial legislation of Great Britain as it
+bears upon our interests. It excludes with interdicting duties all
+importation (except in time of approaching famine) of the great staple
+of production of our Middle and Western States; it proscribes with
+equal rigor the bulkier lumber and live stock of the same portion and
+also of the Northern and Eastern part of our Union. It refuses even the
+rice of the South unless aggravated with a charge of duty upon the
+Northern carrier who brings it to them. But the cotton, indispensable
+for their looms, they will receive almost duty free to weave it into a
+fabric for our own wear, to the destruction of our own manufactures,
+which they are enabled thus to under-sell.
+
+Is the self-protecting energy of this nation so helpless that there
+exists in the political institutions of our country no power to
+counter-act the bias of this foreign legislation; that the growers of
+grain must submit to this exclusion from the foreign markets of their
+produce; that the shippers must dismantle their ships, the trade of the
+North stagnate at the wharves, and the manufacturers starve at their
+looms, while the whole people shall pay tribute to foreign industry to
+be clad in a foreign garb; that the Congress of the Union are impotent
+to restore the balance in favor of native industry destroyed by the
+statutes of another realm?
+
+More just and generous sentiments will, I trust, prevail. If the tariff
+adopted at the last session of Congress shall be found by experience to
+bear oppressively upon the interests of any one section of the Union,
+it ought to be, and I can not doubt will be, so modified as to
+alleviate its burden. To the voice of just complaint from any portion
+of their constituents the representatives of the States and of the
+people will never turn away their ears.
+
+But so long as the duty of the foreign shall operate only as a bounty
+upon the domestic article; while the planter and the merchant and the
+shepherd and the husbandman shall be found thriving in their
+occupations under the duties imposed for the protection of domestic
+manufactures, they will not repine at the prosperity shared with
+themselves by their fellow citizens of other professions, nor denounce
+as violations of the Constitution the deliberate acts of Congress to
+shield from the wrongs of foreigns the native industry of the Union.
+
+While the tariff of the last session of Congress was a subject of
+legislative deliberation it was foretold by some of its opposers that
+one of its necessary consequences would be to impair the revenue. It is
+yet too soon to pronounce with confidence that this prediction was
+erroneous. The obstruction of one avenue of trade not unfrequently
+opens an issue to another. The consequence of the tariff will be to
+increase the exportation and to diminish the importation of some
+specific articles; but by the general law of trade the increase of
+exportation of one article will be followed by an increased importation
+of others, the duties upon which will supply the deficiencies which the
+diminished importation would otherwise occasion. The effect of taxation
+upon revenue can seldom be foreseen with certainty. It must abide the
+test of experience.
+
+As yet no symptoms of diminution are perceptible in the receipts of the
+Treasury. As yet little addition of cost has even been experienced upon
+the articles burdened with heavier duties by the last tariff. The
+domestic manufacturer supplies the same or a kindred article at a
+diminished price, and the consumer pays the same tribute to the labor
+of his own country-man which he must otherwise have paid to foreign
+industry and toil.
+
+The tariff of the last session was in its details not acceptable to the
+great interests of any portion of the Union, not even to the interest
+which it was specially intended to subserve. Its object was to balance
+the burdens upon native industry imposed by the operation of foreign
+laws, but not to aggravate the burdens of one section of the Union by
+the relief afforded to another. To the great principle sanctioned by
+that act--one of those upon which the Constitution itself was formed--I
+hope and trust the authorities of the Union will adhere. But if any of
+the duties imposed by the act only relieve the manufacturer by
+aggravating the burden of the planter, let a careful revisal of its
+provisions, enlightened by the practical experience of its effects, be
+directed to retain those which impart protection to native industry and
+remove or supply the place of those which only alleviate one great
+national interest by the depression of another.
+
+The United States of America and the people of every State of which
+they are composed are each of them sovereign powers. The legislative
+authority of the whole is exercised by Congress under authority granted
+them in the common Constitution. The legislative power of each State is
+exercised by assemblies deriving their authority from the constitution
+of the State. Each is sovereign within its own province. The
+distribution of power between them presupposes that these authorities
+will move in harmony with each other. The members of the State and
+General Governments are all under oath to support both, and allegiance
+is due to the one and to the other. The case of a conflict between
+these two powers has not been supposed, nor has any provision been made
+for it in our institutions; as a virtuous nation of ancient times
+existed more than five centuries without a law for the punishment of
+parricide.
+
+More than once, however, in the progress of our history have the people
+and the legislatures of one or more States, in moments of excitement,
+been instigated to this conflict; and the means of effecting this
+impulse have been allegations that the acts of Congress to be resisted
+were unconstitutional. The people of no one State have ever delegated
+to their legislature the power of pronouncing an act of Congress
+unconstitutional, but they have delegated to them powers by the
+exercise of which the execution of the laws of Congress within the
+State may be resisted. If we suppose the case of such conflicting
+legislation sustained by the corresponding executive and judicial
+authorities, patriotism and philanthropy turn their eyes from the
+condition in which the parties would be placed, and from that of the
+people of both, which must be its victims.
+
+The reports from the Secretary of War and the various subordinate
+offices of the resort of that Department present an exposition of the
+public administration of affairs connected with them through the course
+of the current year. The present state of the Army and the distribution
+of the force of which it is composed will be seen from the report of
+the Major General. Several alterations in the disposal of the troops
+have been found expedient in the course of the year, and the discipline
+of the Army, though not entirely free from exception, has been
+generally good.
+
+The attention of Congress is particularly invited to that part of the
+report of the Secretary of War which concerns the existing system of
+our relations with the Indian tribes. At the establishment of the
+Federal Government under the present Constitution of the United States
+the principle was adopted of considering them as foreign and
+independent powers and also as proprietors of lands. They were,
+moreover, considered as savages, whom it was our policy and our duty to
+use our influence in converting to Christianity and in bringing within
+the pale of civilization.
+
+As independent powers, we negotiated with them by treaties; as
+proprietors, we purchased of them all the lands which we could prevail
+upon them to sell; as brethren of the human race, rude and ignorant, we
+endeavored to bring them to the knowledge of religion and letters. The
+ultimate design was to incorporate in our own institutions that portion
+of them which could be converted to the state of civilization. In the
+practice of European States, before our Revolution, they had been
+considered as children to be governed; as tenants at discretion, to be
+dispossessed as occasion might require; as hunters to be indemnified by
+trifling concessions for removal from the grounds from which their game
+was extirpated. In changing the system it would seem as if a full
+contemplation of the consequences of the change had not been taken.
+
+We have been far more successful in the acquisition of their lands than
+in imparting to them the principles or inspiring them with the spirit
+of civilization. But in appropriating to ourselves their hunting
+grounds we have brought upon ourselves the obligation of providing them
+with subsistence; and when we have had the rare good fortune of
+teaching them the arts of civilization and the doctrines of
+Christianity we have unexpectedly found them forming in the midst of
+ourselves communities claiming to be independent of ours and rivals of
+sovereignty within the territories of the members of our Union. This
+state of things requires that a remedy should be provided--a remedy
+which, while it shall do justice to those unfortunate children of
+nature, may secure to the members of our confederation their rights of
+sovereignty and of soil. As the outline of a project to that effect,
+the views presented in the report of the Secretary of War are
+recommended to the consideration of Congress.
+
+The report from the Engineer Department presents a comprehensive view
+of the progress which has been made in the great systems promotive of
+the public interest, commenced and organized under authority of
+Congress, and the effects of which have already contributed to the
+security, as they will hereafter largely contribute to the honor and
+dignity, of the nation.
+
+The first of these great systems is that of fortifications, commenced
+immediately after the close of our last war, under the salutary
+experience which the events of that war had impressed upon our country-
+men of its necessity. Introduced under the auspices of my immediate
+predecessor, it has been continued with the persevering and liberal
+encouragement of the Legislature, and, combined with corresponding
+exertions for the gradual increase and improvement of the Navy,
+prepares for our extensive country a condition of defense adapted to
+any critical emergency which the varying course of events may bring
+forth. Our advances in these concerted systems have for the last ten
+years been steady and progressive, and in a few years more will be so
+completed as to leave no cause for apprehension that our sea coast will
+ever again offer a theater of hostile invasion.
+
+The next of these cardinal measures of policy is the preliminary to
+great and lasting works of public improvement in the surveys of roads,
+examination for the course of canals, and labors for the removal of the
+obstructions of rivers and harbors, first commenced by the act of
+Congress of April 30th, 1824.
+
+The report exhibits in one table the funds appropriated at the last and
+preceding sessions of Congress for all these fortifications, surveys,
+and works of public improvement, the manner in which these funds have
+been applied, the amount expended upon the several works under
+construction, and the further sums which may be necessary to complete
+them; in a second, the works projected by the Board of Engineers which
+have not been commenced, and the estimate of their cost; in a third,
+the report of the annual Board of Visitors at the Military Academy at
+West Point.
+
+For thirteen fortifications erecting on various points of our Atlantic
+coast, from Rhode Island to Louisiana, the aggregate expenditure of the
+year has fallen little short of $1,000,000. For the preparation of five
+additional reports of reconnoissances and surveys since the last
+session of Congress, for the civil construction upon 37 different
+public works commenced, eight others for which specific appropriations
+have been made by acts of Congress, and twenty other incipient surveys
+under the authority given by the act of April 30th, 1824, about
+$1,000,000 more has been drawn from the Treasury.
+
+To these $2,000,000 is to be added the appropriation of $250,000 to
+commence the erection of a break-water near the mouth of the Delaware
+River, the subscriptions to the Delaware and Chesapeake, the Louisville
+and Portland, the Dismal Swamp, and the Chesapeake and Ohio canals, the
+large donations of lands to the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and
+Alabama for objects of improvements within those States, and the sums
+appropriated for light-houses, buoys, and piers on the coast; and a
+full view will be taken of the munificence of the nation in the
+application of its resources to the improvement of its own condition.
+
+Of these great national under-takings the Academy at West Point is
+among the most important in itself and the most comprehensive in its
+consequences. In that institution a part of the revenue of the nation
+is applied to defray the expense of educating a competent portion of
+her youth chiefly to the knowledge and the duties of military life. It
+is the living armory of the nation. While the other works of
+improvement enumerated in the reports now presented to the attention of
+Congress are destined to ameliorate the face of nature, to multiply the
+facilities of communication between the different parts of the Union,
+to assist the labors, increase the comforts, and enhance the enjoyments
+of individuals, the instruction acquired at West Point enlarges the
+dominion and expands the capacities of the mind. Its beneficial results
+are already experienced in the composition of the Army, and their
+influence is felt in the intellectual progress of society. The
+institution is susceptible still of great improvement from benefactions
+proposed by several successive Boards of Visitors, to whose earnest and
+repeated recommendations I cheerfully add my own.
+
+With the usual annual reports from the Secretary of the Navy and the
+Board of Commissioners will be exhibited to the view of Congress the
+execution of the laws relating to that department of the public
+service. The repression of piracy in the West Indian and in the Grecian
+seas has been effectually maintained, with scarcely any exception.
+During the war between the Governments of Buenos Ayres and of Brazil
+frequent collisions between the belligerent acts of power and the
+rights of neutral commerce occurred. Licentious blockades, irregularly
+enlisted or impressed sea men, and the property of honest commerce
+seized with violence, and even plundered under legal pretenses, are
+disorders never separable from the conflicts of war upon the ocean.
+
+With a portion of them the correspondence of our commanders on the
+eastern aspect of the South American coast and among the islands of
+Greece discover how far we have been involved. In these the honor of
+our country and the rights of our citizens have been asserted and
+vindicated. The appearance of new squadrons in the Mediterranean and
+the blockade of the Dardanelles indicate the danger of other obstacles
+to the freedom of commerce and the necessity of keeping our naval force
+in those seas. To the suggestions repeated in the report of the
+Secretary of the Navy, and tending to the permanent improvement of this
+institution, I invite the favorable consideration of Congress.
+
+A resolution of the House of Representatives requesting that one of our
+small public vessels should be sent to the Pacific Ocean and South Sea
+to examine the coasts, islands, harbors, shoals, and reefs in those
+seas, and to ascertain their true situation and description, has been
+put in a train of execution. The vessel is nearly ready to depart. The
+successful accomplishment of the expedition may be greatly facilitated
+by suitable legislative provisions, and particularly by an
+appropriation to defray its necessary expense. The addition of a 2nd,
+and perhaps a 3rd, vessel, with a slight aggravation of the cost, would
+contribute much to the safety of the citizens embarked on this under-
+taking, the results of which may be of the deepest interest to our
+country.
+
+With the report of the Secretary of the Navy will be submitted, in
+conformity to the act of Congress of March 3d, 1827, for the gradual
+improvement of the Navy of the United States, statements of the
+expenditures under that act and of the measures for carrying the same
+into effect. Every section of that statute contains a distinct
+provision looking to the great object of the whole--the gradual
+improvement of the Navy. Under its salutary sanction stores of ship
+timber have been procured and are in process of seasoning and
+preservation for the future uses of the Navy. Arrangements have been
+made for the preservation of the live oak timber growing on the lands
+of the United States, and for its reproduction, to supply at future and
+distant days the waste of that most valuable material for ship building
+by the great consumption of it yearly for the commercial as well as for
+the military marine of our country.
+
+The construction of the two dry docks at Charlestown and at Norfolk is
+making satisfactory progress toward a durable establishment. The
+examinations and inquiries to ascertain the practicability and
+expediency of a marine railway at Pensacola, though not yet
+accomplished, have been postponed but to be more effectually made. The
+navy yards of the United States have been examined, and plans for their
+improvement and the preservation of the public property therein at
+Portsmouth, Charlestown, Philadelphia, Washington, and Gosport, and to
+which two others are to be added, have been prepared and received my
+sanction; and no other portion of my public duties has been performed
+with a more intimate conviction of its importance to the future welfare
+and security of the Union.
+
+With the report from the Post Master General is exhibited a comparative
+view of the gradual increase of that establishment, from five to five
+years, since 1792 'til this time in the number of post offices, which
+has grown from less than 200 to nearly 8,000; in the revenue yielded by
+them, which from $67,000 has swollen to upward of $1,500,000, and in
+the number of miles of post roads, which from 5,642 have multiplied to
+114,536. While in the same period of time the population of the Union
+has about thrice doubled, the rate of increase of these offices is
+nearly 40, and of the revenue and of traveled miles from 20 to 25 for
+one. The increase of revenue within the last five years has been nearly
+equal to the whole revenue of the Department in 1812.
+
+The expenditures of the Department during the year which ended on July
+1st, 1828 have exceeded the receipts by a sum of about $25,000. The
+excess has been occasioned by the increase of mail conveyances and
+facilities to the extent of near 800,000 miles. It has been supplied by
+collections from the post masters of the arrearages of preceding years.
+While the correct principle seems to be that the income levied by the
+Department should defray all its expenses, it has never been the policy
+of this Government to raise from this establishment any revenue to be
+applied to any other purposes. The suggestion of the Post Master
+General that the insurance of the safe transmission of moneys by the
+mail might be assumed by the Department for a moderate and competent
+remuneration will deserve the consideration of Congress.
+
+A report from the commissioner of the public buildings in this city
+exhibits the expenditures upon them in the course of the current year.
+It will be seen that the humane and benevolent intentions of Congress
+in providing, by the act of May 20th, 1826, for the erection of a
+penitentiary in this District have been accomplished. The authority of
+further legislation is now required for the removal to this tenement of
+the offenders against the laws sentenced to atone by personal
+confinement for their crimes, and to provide a code for their
+employment and government while thus confined.
+
+The commissioners appointed, conformably to the act of March 2d, 1827,
+to provide for the adjustment of claims of persons entitled to
+indemnification under the first article of the treaty of Ghent, and for
+the distribution among such claimants of the sum paid by the Government
+of Great Britain under the convention of November 13th, 1826, closed
+their labors on August 30th, 1828 last by awarding to the claimants the
+sum of $1,197,422.18, leaving a balance of $7,537.82, which was
+distributed ratably amongst all the claimants to whom awards had been
+made, according to the directions of the act.
+
+The exhibits appended to the report from the Commissioner of the
+General Land Office present the actual condition of that common
+property of the Union. The amount paid into the Treasury from the
+proceeds of lands during the year 1827 and for the first half of 1828
+falls little short of $2,000,000. The propriety of further extending
+the time for the extinguishment of the debt due to the United States by
+the purchasers of the public lands, limited by the act of March 21st,
+1828 to July 4th, 1829, will claim the consideration of Congress, to
+whose vigilance and careful attention the regulation, disposal, and
+preservation of this great national inheritance has by the people of
+the United States been intrusted.
+
+Among the important subjects to which the attention of the present
+Congress has already been invited, and which may occupy their further
+and deliberate discussion, will be the provision to be made for taking
+the 5th census of enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States.
+The Constitution of the United States requires that this enumeration
+should be made within every term of ten years, and the date from which
+the last enumeration commenced was the first Monday of August of the
+year 1820.
+
+The laws under which the former enumerations were taken were enacted at
+the session of Congress immediately preceding the operation; but
+considerable inconveniences were experienced from the delay of
+legislation to so late a period. That law, like those of the preceding
+enumerations, directed that the census should be taken by the marshals
+of the several districts and Territories of the Union under
+instructions from the Secretary of State. The preparation and
+transmission to the marshals of those instructions required more time
+than was then allowed between the passage of the law and the day when
+the enumeration was to commence. The term of six months limited for the
+returns of the marshals was also found even then too short, and must be
+more so now, when an additional population of at least 3,000,000 must
+be presented upon the returns.
+
+As they are to be made at the short session of Congress, it would, as
+well as from other considerations, be more convenient to commence the
+enumeration from an earlier period of the year than the first of
+August. The most favorable season would be the spring.
+
+On a review of the former enumerations it will be found that the plan
+for taking every census has contained many improvements upon that of
+its predecessor. The last is still susceptible of much improvement. The
+3rd Census was the first at which any account was taken of the
+manufactures of the country. It was repeated at the last enumeration,
+but the returns in both cases were necessarily very imperfect. They
+must always be so, resting, of course, only upon the communications
+voluntarily made by individuals interested in some of the manufacturing
+establishments. Yet they contained much valuable information, and may
+by some supplementary provision of the law be rendered more effective.
+
+The columns of age, commencing from infancy, have hitherto been
+confined to a few periods, all under the number of 45 years. Important
+knowledge would be obtained by extending these columns, in intervals of
+ten years, to the utmost boundaries of human life. The labor of taking
+them would be a trifling addition to that already prescribed, and the
+result would exhibit comparative tables of longevity highly interesting
+to the country. I deem it my duty further to observe that much of the
+imperfections in the returns of the last and perhaps of preceding
+enumerations proceeded from the inadequateness of the compensations
+allowed to the marshals and their assistants in taking them.
+
+In closing this communication it only remains for me to assure the
+Legislature of my continued earnest wish for the adoption of measures
+recommended by me heretofore and yet to be acted on by them, and of the
+cordial concurrence on my part in every constitutional provision which
+may receive their sanction during the session tending to the general
+welfare.
+
+JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of State of the Union Addresses of John
+Quincy Adams, by John Quincy Adams
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